ex post facto 2017
 

winston rides again

sad/true

I bit the pillow and partyvoted fucking GREENS this time around just to try and ensure that Winston would not be in this position.

Which side will he go for. Personally I can't stand the man - but I'm hoping he doesn't screw this up.

Swarbrick getting a seat is win enough for me. I bet she'll be co-leader by 2020. She kicked butt in the young voters debate.

Yeah kudos to the Greens for avoiding total disaster, but YOU FUCKING MUPPETS for being in that position in the first place. Oh what discussions we would have had here during Metiria's little episode...

Need to get a poll going: Which buncha muppets did you vote for?

Also need to fix the facepalm emoji :D

I kinda miss John Key but Bill seems to be doing something right to be so close to securing a fourth term for National.

and I'll say it, I'm kinda disappointed TOP didn't get more traction. I can see why they didn't get traction, but they had a lot of good ideas that NZ could definitely do with.

Yep - Radioactive, Upside Down and Facepalm all have the wrong path to their icons (images/icons, instead of images/nzgames/icons).

I was keen on TOP's land tax. They are policy geeks who should stick to policy imo as they have no clue on how to run a campaign.

This. Sensible necessary policies that the electorate ignored because of the people saying them. Morgan and Plunket were fucking awful.

TOP looked good on paper - personalities killed it. Morgan should have just been the brains behind the outfit, got an actual politician (or someone who understood politics) to be the face and gone with a decentralised communications strategy.

This pretty much sums up TOP for me.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/30...tx_UsM.twitter

I <3 danylmc

As mentioned.. the highlight of this election for me, has to be that while the usuals lost their shit once again, over the small handful of people in the media who have the temerity to admit they lean right - almost every other media personality, alleged commentator, opinion writer, shitty comedian and d-list celebrity in nz that tried to foist Jacindamania on us - got uppercut by "Boring Bill".
That's just no small feat, no matter how they try to spin it. Top effort.
Oh and Hooton sledging Cunliffe live on election night. Hooton is a douche but that was still pretty funny (and true).

Special votes result: National 2 seats down, Labour/Greens 2 up (1 each). The election is Winston's to decide (as it was anyway), but I guess it makes things a little more interesting for him now.

Dream scenario: Labour + Green, NZF C&S.

Give Winnie a few concessions, he gets to keep his platform to berate the government from, which is really where he thrives.

You should cut back on the shrooms.

Dream Scenario: National + Labour

Fiscal & social responsibility combined, and who could argue against an 80% grand coalition. No need for Winston, No need for the Greens, No Need for ACT.. screw em all.

Fiscal responsibility is a story National sells. Their behaviour demonstrates they're the power for the powerful party. Basic neolibs. Now Labour like power too, but that's not what their support base is about. National+Labour = National governing alone in 3 years time.

What are the chances of Winnie teaming up with Labour as a "mic drop" to the status quo before he quits for good.

Likely. It's almost impossible to escape that "4th term" narrative in NZ, so I'd imagine "5th term national" and "winston legacy" the media hacks keep spinning, will indeed factor in and we'll likely see the supposed man of the regions, pander to urban liberals. I mean there is another surplus for Labour to spend. #thenzcyclecontinues

I really think it's under-appreciated how rich NZ really is. Sure, we don't have the GDP/capita that the US has, but we only have a fraction of the debt. And we've got all these geopolitical perks that makes life easier for us.

We have debt to burn. A surplus is a bit of a face palm when we could be spending that money in ways that generates even more money.

Or he'll go the "all or nothing" route and want pole position. First one to cave and give him the PM slot wins.
Why settle for kingmaker when you've got huge leverage for the crown itself.

Been listening to Seymour too much man. I think Winston respects his role a bit more than the media would have you believe. He'll just squeeze as much policy out of them as he can this time around and try to set NZF up for later. Which is why I think Labour has a 70/30 lead in it atm probably.

Hilarious. This is the kind of media we're dealing with in NZ. Just seen on the herald site:

I vote left, but I don't think a National + NZF would be "too" bad for another term.
Some of the policies from NZF are what the country needs, and will shift national left more.

Also, based on how the election went when Jacinda came on, it was a lot more focused on the Social aspect, and Bill said a lot of things to try and counter Jacinda. So as long as he keeps his promise on the things he said it will be a good thing.

Is that for real? Did that happen? Did you take that from The Civilian?

Yep. Checkout the bottom right quick read on the site. A quick breaking news alert to fire you into a dogshit live blog and punditry.

Either she came with one gingernut, which is criminal, or there's such a thing as "gingernut-and-chocolate-wheaten biscuits", WHICH IS CRIMINAL

The idea of a ginger & chocolate wheaten biscuit does sound kinda appealing tho.

I think Winnie's more of a toffeepop fan personally.

I'm waiting for the "body language expert" to turn up.

Man, the greens would do right to set up a free beer fund or something for Shaw after this one. He's been bitch slapped by everybody this election.

Wasn't that the Green party leadership when it was Russel Norman and Metiria Turei?

Dude got a fucking hospital pass though, I actually think he's done remarkably well considering the bag of faeces that Turei dropped in his lap.

That's why I'm saying he should be rewarded.
Unless you're such a wine snob now you don't consider free beer a reward.

ahahahaha gotcha, sorry I misunderstood your post.

fuck you HO

Weak excuses is what that sounds like to me.

I wonder if this will make the Greens re-evaluate their party (like a lot of talk these last 2 weeks) to be a more centralist party that can go with either National or Labour.

I do not see that happening without a major change in both party membership and party policy.

Yeah, while all those articles were good for a laugh, not going to happen. Despite getting their teeth kicked in by Jacinda and team, their vote is still actually tied to the more astute labour voters keeping them afloat, in down times.
Let's be real, unless top and act get their shit together as nzf dies off (or something new pops up), it's going to be lefty croneville for a long time coming anyway. Greens have no need to change.