Hosking and Watkins on Labour

Mike Hosking writes:

I bet Labour wishes it wasn't election year.

Or if it has to be election year, I bet Labour wishes it was January again and they could start all over.

Labour's in a mess.

They look in no shape at all to compete, far less win an election.

Up until about now I've been running the line that's generally run in election year when it comes to polls and predictions.

The line is that, “there's still a lot of water to go under the bridge”, the line is, “a week is a long time in politics”, the line is, “the polls will tighten”.

Well as we sit here now this morning I feel less and less of that is true.

It looks increasingly possible that a lot of what appears might happen, actually will happen, even though it's July and the vote's in September.

One of the things I think will happen is that Labour won't break 30 per cent and quite possibly will do worse than that.

And Hosking says they are mainly responsible:

But as much as they will hate hearing this, much of their problem is of their own making. The trick at least in part to political success is giving people what they want. And quotas on lists, more tax, stopping people cutting up trees that are blown over, isn't it.

And that's before we get to Trevor Mallard and his moa. How inexplicable is that? No one of that experience raises something that nutty, this close to a poll, in a party with this much trouble, without knowing what they're doing. And what he's doing is taking the piss. I could've seen past it if Trevor closed it down, said nothing, apologised, put it down to a mad moment.

But he took my colleague Jehan Casinader into the bush, and talked about what sized moa he would like to see, and what sort of noise they'd make. He looked like someone who'd been let out on day release.

Tracy Watkins also touches on the moa:

Labour needed Trevor Mallard this week like it needed a hole in the head.

Mallard's blurt about bringing Moa back from the dead was a gift to National who gloried in the treasure trove of one-liners about dinosaurs and extinction.

Ironically, Mallard's grand Moa plan coincided with a morning tea shout to mark him and Annette King celebrating three decades in Parliament.

Even Mallard's Labour colleagues couldn't resist the Jurassic Park comparisons.

Bizarrely, there was also a school of thought that Mallard might actually be a genius because people were finally talking about Labour.

That must surely be the definition of clutching at straws, but it is symptomatic of the trough Labour has found itself in that generating any sort of chatter round the water cooler – even when it invites ridicule – is an improvement.

I encourage Trevor to keep it up!

Labour certainly can't be blamed for going into the election without a plan to put to voters.

Its economic strategy is far-reaching, including a capital gains tax to smooth out the peaks and troughs in housing, reform to address currency pressures, raising the pension age to address the long-term sustainability of government finances, and compulsory to mimic Australia's hugely successful scheme.

The policy has been deliberately crafted to show that Labour is capable of making some tough choices and to underscore its fiscal credentials.

But National has done such a number on Labour's economic credibility that many voters still don't trust it with taxpayer money.

Labour doesn't help itself when it tries to attack National as spendthrift for running up debt and deficits.

Given that the global financial crisis and Canterbury earthquakes are still fresh in everyone's minds Labour ‘s attack lines just come across as sly and dishonest.

Their attacks on National for having six years of deficits are bizarre. Every single decision to restrain spending by National, was vigorously attacked by Labour – and then six years later they claim they would have got out of deficit faster. That's why they have no credibility – they treat the public as idiots.

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