Tuesday 13 September 2005

New party leaders?

A week is a long time in politics. Now we have the cliché out of the way, doesn't this last week of the election campaign seem like a week too far? Hasn't the pressure come off just a little, rather than being ramped up? An eight week campaign seems to have bored everyone, including the politicians.

And something else that hasn't been talked about too much is the enormous upcoming change in the political landscape by the imminent departure of some major dominating features. We know some of the minor parliamentary parties may not survive this election, but this is also almost certainly Helen's last term, so win or lose they'll be jostling for the leadership over on the red benches. And Brash has already indicated that this election is his only roll of the electoral dice, so if the Nats don't win, the blue benches will be needing a new leader too. Has that jostling started already?

So by this time next election there now seems every chance that NZ First and ACT will have disappeared, and one chance in four that both of the big old parties will have new faces being airbrushed on their billboards. Whose faces do you foresee on them? Leave your suggestions below.

2 comments:

Aaron Bhatnagar said...

If ACT do get in, and they do get 3%+, then that brings Stephen Franks into Parliament. Not sure if that's such a good thing for Rodney, even if he does have Epsom.

Anonymous said...

This prediction is from a friend of mine, and he said it elsewhere.

National Triumphs, Minor Parties disappear except the Maori Party:
Helen Clark resigns and flies down to Christchurch to start a family by artificial insemination.
Jim Anderton buys a corner dairy.
Jeanette Fitzsimons and Rod Donald return to recycling their own manure full time in their veggie gardens.
Winston discovers he has lung cancer.
Rodney Hide just misses in Epsom and lands a bit part in an American movie as a Mafia thug.
Peter Dunne is so boring that no one notices whether he got back or not.
Several Maori list candidates die from eating poisoned shellfish and are replaced by Alamein Kopu and Donna Awatere-Huata.