Lurking In The Wings

The underlying vibe that appears to be coming from Don Brash post-election is one of a lack of confidence in Labour being able to assemble and maintain a stable coalition government, given the hand that has been dealt by the people in respect to the Parliamentary make-up. In most of his comments that have been published in the media since the final election results were released yesterday, it is significantly noticeable that he is consistently adding ifs and buts in light of his seeming pseudo-anticipation that the new Labour-led government that is to be formed is not actually going to make it to the time of the next scheduled election in Two Thousand and Eight.

This lack of confidence should certainly be taken seriously to at least some degree, because for all his disagreeable traits Brash is a credible man, having hauled the National Party up from the abysmal depths of inadequacy that it had fallen to under Bill English. Well, he's credible as long as one forgets the way that he went about achieving the party's comeback, anyway.

Despite the lack of faith that Brash is exhibiting, from what I have seen and read it appears to me personally that Parliament's left-wing member organisations are very much on good, healthy terms with one another, and I am confident that they will produce a far more solid and effective government than the right ever would given this term's now-confirmed seating situation. Indeed, the left seem to almost paint a picture of themselves as a unified political movement rather than a divided cluster of parties that do not lock together directly with one another. One gets the impression that even if they do not share the same policies, they all share the same basic philosophy, and they recognise and embrace that.


When I placed my votes I was mindful of the fact that a vote for any left-wing party is a vote for a left-wing government. I don't believe the same thing can usually be said about voting for a minor rightist party -- I consider United Future and New Zealand First to be centre-right parties, yet they can't be trusted to the point that you know what sort of government you are voting for when you provide them with some support. However, on Election Day I also made sure that I took into account the fact that we are privileged, most certainly, to have the greatly representative electoral system that is MMP, and voted accordingly. Under MMP there's no point in giving your vote to one of the major parties when one of the minor parties provides a complete representation of your beliefs, values and opinions. I guess that, to a degree, justifies the decisions of those who gave their party votes to United Future and New Zealand First; but I certainly stand by my confidence in this term's left being an admirably harmonious one indeed.