Do the Conservatives really want a cup of tea with National?

Written By: - Date published: 6:20 pm, June 17th, 2014 - 22 comments
Categories: conservative party, national, winston peters - Tags:

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So conservative right wing voters.  Had a guts full of National abandoning their principles?  Have you had enough of their arrogance and their refusal to follow the asset sales referendum (although the anti-smacking referendum was frankly rather confusing).  Had enough of the two waka Government?  Want to meet someone who says “enough is enough”?  Think National’s behaviour is toxic?  Then the Conservatives want you to think that Colin is your man.

It seems the current strategy is for the Conservatives to make the next Government a three waka Government, and they also want National to gift them a seat while at the same time they publicly insult National.

Get that?

It is hard to work out the game plan.  Maybe the intent is to do what Winston did in 1996 and tour the country sounding anti National, soak up anti Government votes and then go into coalition with them.  Maybe Craig thinks that the conservatives can crack 5%.  Maybe there is no cunning plan, just a badly crafted attempt to be controversial and to attract attention.

Whatever happens on election night people may think that Craig is a brilliant strategist.  Or a schmuck.

22 comments on “Do the Conservatives really want a cup of tea with National? ”

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  1. Lanthanide 1
    17 June 2014 at 6:35 pm

    “Maybe the intent is to do what Winston did in 1996 and tour the country sounding anti National, soak up anti Government votes and then go into coalition with them. ”

    Winston said he ended up going with Bolger not because he particularly wanted to, but because Helen Clark and Jim Anderton were literally not talking to each other (because of the New Labour fiasco etc) and he didn’t think that they could form a stable government on that sort of basis. He was most likely right.

  2. Ergo Robertina 2
    17 June 2014 at 6:48 pm

    The game plan is not hard to work out.
    There are conservatives who vote National but do not support neoliberal policies like asset sales, on which Craig is seeking to capitalise.
    He isn’t doing a 1996 Winston; Winston strongly implied he would not go with National, whereas Craig is running a keep National in power but keep them honest pitch.
    There is a gap on the right for such a party, but I don’t think Craig is quite the right fit for it.

  3. BM 3
    17 June 2014 at 6:50 pm

    It’s fairly obvious I would have thought.

    There’s only room really for one right wing party, Act is pretty much gone and Colin wants to assume that mantle.

    He can’t rely on National giving him a seat so he’s going to go for 5% and I think he’s got a chance of getting there.

    Winston is gone, Horan will see to that and Key is hated by the more rightist elements, Colin sees enough votes there to get him over the line.

  4. scotty 4
    17 June 2014 at 7:05 pm

    “There’s only room really for one right wing party”

    Yep , and that is the National party – hence the need for Key to manufacture fake coalition partners.

  5. One Anonymous Bloke 5
    17 June 2014 at 7:15 pm

    The dog whistle is in the line about borrowing. What’s Cray-Cray’s alternative? Higher taxes or austerity?

    I’m picking it ain’t higher taxes.

    The rest is a dog-whistle to tea-party shufflers (no, not card sharps – the Thorazine variety).

  6. Tracey 6
    17 June 2014 at 7:17 pm

    What is a two waka govt?
    Uf
    ACT
    national
    MP

    isnt that four waka?

    Is this a strange attempt at kiwi iwi

    • weka 6.1
      17 June 2014 at 9:04 pm

      That’s what I thought too Tracey. Like with the Son of National/Son of Helen thing, either he’s dog whistling in some arcane fundy dialect, or his marketing team are stupid.

      • marty mars 6.1.1
        17 June 2014 at 11:45 pm

        I wondered about that too – to be generous he might be meaning that they are double-hulled. The ads have been terrible, cringe-worthy but maybe the target audience get it. I have a fundamentalist christian coming over for dinner tomorrow, I might ask him.

  7. The Al1en 7
    17 June 2014 at 7:51 pm

    “they also want National to gift them a seat while at the same time they publicly insult National.”

    If national were replaced with Labour, that would be a good description of a lot of mip supporters on here.

  8. AmaKiwi 8
    17 June 2014 at 7:58 pm

    Sometimes actors, entertainers, and sports people with over sized egos think, “Politics is easy. I can do it.”

    No, it’s a profession. Knowing what not to say and when not to say it is part of the profession. Colin Craig should be a centipede, he shoots himself in the foot so often.

    Dotcom hasn’t blown it yet in part because he has gotten professional politicians to do the talking.

    It is going to be an interesting 95 days.

  9. Marksman33 9
    17 June 2014 at 8:29 pm

    My money’s on Schmuck.

  10. Bearded Git 10
    17 June 2014 at 8:53 pm

    “Had enough of Bill English’s borrowing habits”

    The Nats will be spitting tacks on this one-they are trying to hide the $60 billion debt they have run up behind a wall of spin. And Colon is shouting it from the rooftops. LOL.

    I read a few days ago on WO someone saying “with friends like the Conservatives who needs enemies”. Methinks there is discontent among the Righties.

  11. Papa Tuanuku 11
    17 June 2014 at 9:07 pm

    Can we change the language? start calling it for what it is? A dirty cup of tea? A sly cup of tea? A plain ‘cup of tea’ makes it sound so innocent and transparent. Scuse the pun.

  12. philj 12
    17 June 2014 at 9:52 pm

    xox
    Vampire Alert! C.C. What will the Christians think?

  13. millsy 13
    17 June 2014 at 10:53 pm

    No one has put ACT and the Conservatives under any serious scriutiny as of yet.

    Jamie Whyte wants to scrap all employment laws and Colin Craig thinks that all women in NZ are sluts (sorry Karol). Dunne secretly agrees with White, and the Maori Party don’t give a shit either way as long as capitalist oppressor has a brown face. Meanwhile if you look down the Conservative list you have the likes of Christine Rankin — great legs, ice cold heart, belt wielding Larry Baldock and I think Gordon Copeland is in there somewhere as well.

    Do we really want Colin Craig to be Associate Education Minister?? He will wipe Darwin out of the classrooms with the stroke of a pen. What about Christine Rankin as Social Welfare minister, replacing Paula Bennett as she moves on to brighter and bigger things (Im actually picking her for the Deputy Leadership when English moves on). One nasty cougar after another…

    And returning to ACT. Do we really want Jamie Whyte as Labour minister? He will ban unions by lunchtime, just like in China.

    If National get back into power — and they probably will — they need to govern ALONE.

  14. Craig Y 14
    18 June 2014 at 9:03 am

    This reminds me rather of the nineties “Christian Coalition,” which consist of the Christian Heritage Party and Graeme Lee’s “Christian Democrats” (later “Future New Zealand”, then the “Kiwi Party”…which was then absorbed by the Conservatives. According to the defunct New Zealand fundamentalist newspaper Challenge Weekly, the CC was a con job- a confidence trick to fool centre-right voters into voting that fundamentalist trojan horse into Parliament. Once there, the Christian Heritage Party would have broken away from the mock ‘coalition.’ Unfortunately for them, a certain gay community member 🙂 encountered the aforementioned Challenge Weekly article and distributed it across the political spectrum.

    I can confirm that in Ian Wishart’s benighted Investigate, Colin Craig was ruminating about crossbenching if NZ centre-right voters respond to his manipulative overtures. To quote Noel Coward , when it comes to Colin Craig’s statements about his political intentions about a centre-right coalition, “it ain’t necessarily so”…

  15. Tanz 15
    18 June 2014 at 1:21 pm

    Getting worried? CC is on a roll, he will make it in, and the sun will still rise…

    • millsy 15.1
      18 June 2014 at 7:33 pm

      Do you want homosexuality recriminalised Tanz?
      Do you want abotion banned?
      Sex before marriage banned?
      Adulterers stoned?
      Evolution writted out of our schools?

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