bye, etc

Just to formalise, I'm not coming back here. This blog was set up for a temporary purpose and it's served it. I've met (or remet) many people I intend to stay in touch with, and I'll still be reading and commenting round the blogosphere, but now I'm returning home.

I can always be found here, and there's an email link there as well. If you're reading this through the LJ feed, there's one set up for the Xanga site as well.

Thanks.

Last Words

I don't know what I can contribute at this point. I'm not going to make predictions, that'd be ridiculous when the only thing we know is that we don't know anything.

I've made up my mind on my party vote. I won't vote negatively, I can never bring myself to do that, so I looked at which party I had the most common ground with on the things that were most important to me, and I'm voting for them.

Candidate vote, well, I'm considering either not casting it, or taking my eight year old daughter into the booth with me and letting her cast it for me. It's irrelevant anyway. I took the time to look at where Mora stood on conscience issues, and he's diametrically opposed to what I believe in. In fact, I'm now somewhat concerned about his position on the Health Board and the council, given he doesn't believe that the rights of committed couples to marry and adopt children should be universal, and not based on sexual orientation. Of course, neither does Brash. One law for all, as long as you're straight.

The result? It's very difficult for anyone to get a third term in New Zealand. We all, no matter what else we believe in, like to think we believe in fair play. Watch National and Labour both characterise contradictory policies in terms of 'fairness'. So there's this urge in the fairly apolitical middle ground to 'let the other guy have a go now'.

But if there's anything the last six years have proved, it's that economic prosperity and social justice aren't mutally exclusive. In fact, if you look at the history of both the US and New Zealand since the 80s, the conclusion you'd come to is that higher tax = higher growth.

But this is the time to back off from the specifics, take a deep breath, and look at the big picture. I can't do more than recommend this morning's blog from Russell Brown. From here on in, it's just uncork the merlot and cross my fingers.

If you don't vote, don't campaign

It's been sort of requested that I bother blogging. Lack of bloggage, you can put down to mental exhaustion. My highest level of involvement in the election campaign for the last week has been swearing at the Labour Party for making me remove the plastic wrap from their junk mail before I could throw it in the recycling with everyone else's. The Greens' pamphlet had at least already been through the recycling once.

Pamphlet. I think it's all been said, really. Brash's "I know nothing!" denials brought back my favourite memories of Hogan's Heroes, and then later in the week, I got to relive my teenage years. "Oh, those pamphlets. I thought you meant some other pamphlets. Um, okay, yeah, I did it, but only once. Okay, maybe three times. But I didn't inhale."

We're well past sublime and into ridiculous now, and I for one will be bloody glad to go vote on Saturday and get the whole thing over with. Well, alright, except for however long negotiations take this time round. The only things that have raised me out of 'enough already' lately were;

• my daughter's assertion that Peter Dunne has very silly hair
• the Destiny NZ ad the other night during the news, which stood out because their guy was standing in front of a mirror, in which his reflection did not appear. Suddenly, it all makes sense...

At this point, there's really only one thing to do to get you through the remaining week, including the last Leaders' Debate, and that's make a drinking game. Seriously, this worked fine for me with both ST:TNG and Teletubbies.

(At this point, I should add a disclaimer. Drinking games are childish and unhealthy. Please always drink rebonsibiply.)

So, from now on, it's a drink if:

• a politician on the back foot accuses the media of bias
• somebody calls somebody else "silly"
• a Wellington Central candidate is assaulted
• Don does that 'no no no no no' thing while flapping his hands about
• Rodney Hide crashes a photo op
• Don has to be told when someone's joking
• everyone has to be told when Don's joking
• the phrase "my wife is Singaporean" is heard again (I just kind of miss this)
• Peter Dunne lies about Green policy and then claims it's a 'figure of speech'
• somebody uses the phrases 'family values', 'hard-working New Zealanders', 'clean and green'
• a politician slags one of their opponents off by accusing them of indulging in dirty or personality politics.
  

Full beverage if:

• during the debate, Clark cracks and tells John Campbell what she thinks of him
• Don is removed from the debate after a tricky question because he's "late for an appointment"
• Winston loses his seat (as many full drinks as you feel are warranted)
• Rodney Hide doesn't lose his (ditto)
• Peter Dunne's hair actually moves
• God enters the campaign for real
  

Contributions in the comments box please.