Noelle McCarthy muses today in the NZ Herald about why New Zealanders are so keen , like the French, to leave town over public holidays. She suggests that it is something to do with not liking shoes (McCarthy writes often about shoes).
The Hive team have dispersed around the country for different reasons, to recharge batteries and to get closer in touch with real New Zealand. The full set of impressions is not yet in but here are two examples:
9 business people sitting around a table in Albany (Northshore Auckland) talking politics and drinking a very nice Chardonnay. All extremely hostile to the PM. She has done her time. Not much interested in National's policy, but it must be better. Main question is whether those in Epsom will vote Rodney Hide on back in? Consensus was that they should to give National a support option. Is there anything Labour can do to win or get close? Not with Helen Clark at the helm.
Further south, heartland New Zealand. Country golfclub. Post match discussion with twelve golfers. Topic, Helen Clark has to go. Actually uncomfortable at the strength of some of the language about the PM, and how personal it has become. What can Labour do to improve things? Get rid of Helen.
Conclusion:
Labour's loss of support in these two areas would appear irreversible, and Labour's persona and that of the PM have merged. Is it possible that because the average person is being alienated by a PM who is maybe past use by date, that Labour is suffering a more severely negative reaction than might otherwise be the case?
This is something else for Cullen and Goff to think about. It will be interesting to see whether Cullen has hung around the 19th at Bridge Pa to gauge opinion there.
