Just Keep Trying To Dupe Us

It has emerged yesterday that National deputy-leader Gerry Brownlee is yet another individual on the political scene that is quite simply full of it, having carefully chosen his words so as to make it seem that National were on a good footing to beat Labour in forming a coalition. He was quoted in the Herald On Sunday as saying, "The situation is that both major parties can at this stage rely on 57 votes." The implication of such a statement would essentially be that the National Party had ACT, United Future and the Maori Party all devotedly on-side, to help the major party become the next government. That is what everyone had ended up thinking.

Of course, it is not the case, with both United and the Maori Party yesterday having "denied guaranteeing any such support." This means that as things stand at the moment, National can only truthfully say that it can rely on fifty votes -- those of its own party, plus those derived from the two committed ACT MPs. In this light, Gerry's attack on Helen yesterday for allegedly having "completely failed" to seal a deal seems slightly hypocritical in an almost completely farcical sense. Gerry's statements are the words of a politician who knows that his side is beat, at least for now.

Upon closer inspection it would actually appear, quite the contrary to Gerry's brash statements -- no pun intended -- that Helen is faring very well in her attempts at pulling a coalition together, considering the hand that she has been dealt by the voters this election. Peter Dunne of United Future told the Herald On Sunday that his party is negotiating "in good faith" with Labour and that it "would not be talking with National on the same basis" unless it comes to the point that it is apparent that it is going to be impossible for Labour to pull a coalition together successfully.

The events of today would also suggest that New Zealand First has pretty much established itself as on the side of the Labour Party. The party president Doug Woolerton wouldn't have resigned in apparent protest like this were it not for the fact that he believed Winston was nail-bitingly close to taking up Helen's offer of a ministerial post -- which happens to be Foreign Minister, goodness forbid. If what currently appears to be inevitable turns out to be true, then Helen has already successfully laid the groundwork for the Labour-led government. With the support of Jim Anderton's Progressive Party, New Zealand First, United Future and also the Greens on confidence and supply, a Labour-led will have amassed sixty-seven of the one hundred and twenty-one seats in Parliament. It's practically the best result that Labour could hope for.