The media have united against Little’s pathetic pre-budget speech. I’ve yet to see a single political commentator praise it in any way. Richard Harman joins the queue of pundits who are finished with Little.
…Mr Little’s core message: “And while the few at the very top got to enjoy special rules that meant they didn’t have to pay their fair share – everyone else is paying the cost.”
This is likely to be the theme of a great deal of Mr Little’s rhetoric over the next few months.
Labour will be attempting to contrast the sober, serious Mr Little against a John Key, who they will seek to portray as something of a lightweight more at home with celebrities and in rich business circles than among ordinary New Zealanders. […]
…the odds are still against Labour. POLITIK has learned that the party’s membership is now probably below that of the Greens, which would place it below 5000, possibly less than half that.
In contrast, National is aiming to recruit up to 35,000 members before the next election campaign.
And any thought the party might have had of assembling a three-party coalition to take power after the next election seems to have been dashed by NZ First Leader Winston Peters actively campaigning against Labour.
But the fact that the party now has a coherent plan of rhetorical attack is a start.
The problem with this approach is that it won’t resonate with swing voters. The nation is clearly in a state where enough of us are warm, fed and happy. There is no appetite for revolution.
The Politics of Envy is unlikely to be a successful strategy when National is ticking all the important boxes: more surgeries, less crime, more medicines, real increases in benefit payments, low and lowering unemployment, good business confidence, strong exports, and low inflation.
The more that Labour keep to their union picket line rhetoric, the more space there is for Winston to sit in the middle. I can assure you he’ll love every minute of it.
– Richard Harman, Politik
