Labour's Chicken Run

Labour's Chicken Run

Labour’s Chicken Run is in full swing with MPs looking for bolt-holes elsewhere rather than put up with more time in opposition with Phil Goff leading them.

Chris Carter set off the chain of events, and the longer time goes on the more it looks like that he was right. Labour MPs have quietly said to me that though they don’t want Phil to lead Labour, they also don’t want anyone else.

George Hawkins looks set to go should he get elected to the Manurewa Community Board and will force a by-election there, and now Winnie Laban has chucked it in.

For the last couple of days as well the tipline has been running hot with whispers out of Christchurch about Lianne “Patsy” Dalziell is about to chuck it in too. The rumour mill down south is flat out suggesting that Patsy is going to resign to take a job overseas.

Right now, I just bet Andrew “Three Hats” Little is kicking his own arse by declaring his born and bred Taranaki-ness when endless opportunities to get into parliament before the next election and spiking Phil Goff are presenting themselves as his broken-arsed party implodes.

He will have a devil of a job though fighting off three by-elections. I say three by-elections because if I was Chris Carter scheduling my bi-election the same days as Mana’s would be a sure-fire way of splitting Labour’s concentration in the electorate. The people want him to resign and test his support, Chris should welcome that and have the bi-election in Te Atatu on the same days as Mana.

As to possible candidates for Mana, names being bandied about by political commentators in the know are Maryan Street, moving north because she is so hopeless she can’t even beat a mental man, Phil Twyford moving south because he has used up every possible chance of getting selected in Auckland, so he may as well have a crack where standards aren’t so high down south, and finally Andrew Little declaring his long distant cousin was from Mana and so he calls it home too.

Notwithstanding all of that the EPMU Labour’s financiers must surely now be worried sick about having any money in the kitty to even fight their way out of a wet paper bag.