What are National’s constituent tribes?

• mickysavage
• 2 years ago
• Categories: national, same old national, uk politics

Russ Jones, who is always a pleasure to read, came up with a really succinct description of the five tribes of the UK Conservative Party.

His description of the problem is a joy to read.

The problem – and I use the word entirely incorrectly – is that there’s no such thing as The Conservative Party. There are five, each with massively different goals and ideals, artificially crammed together because of the FPTP system.

Then he set out the five different tribes which include the following:

• One Nation Conservatives, who would be recognisable to Ken Clark, and are – at the margins – interchangeable with some Lib Dems. Mercer. Wallace
• Xenophobic English nationalists, basically UKIP, obsessed with immigration and sovereignty, eg Braverman, Patel
• Wild-eyed libertarians who believe in the Sovereign Individual, and all the madness Liz Truss just unleashed. Drax. Raab. Kwarteng.
• Scatty populist bullshitters, who say and do anything to remain in power but have no plan or ideals – Johnson, Dorries and that sordid crew
• Machine politicians attempting to hold all this together for no reason better than: they have nothing else in their lives, except for a psychotic belief that they alone deserve to rule. Gove or May, essentially

This made me wonder.  What are National’s tribes and how many of them are there?  And how many replicate what is happening in the UK?

1. There is the pro farming almost groundswell sector of the party.  They think we should trust farmers to get us out of the climate change crisis and leave it all up to them.
2. Christian conservatives obviously feature very highly.  It is interesting that one of the most conservative, Simon O’Connor, has a challenge to his continued occupation of his seat.
3. A vocal but shrinking urban liberal but anti worker cult.
4. And our own versions of machine politicians.  John Key and Steven Joyce spring to mind.

I could not find an equivalent for xenophobic National members although the mere mention of Nanaia Mahuta’s name seems to send a few of them into a frenzy.  Here in Aotearoa the vast majority of us relish in our ethnic diversity and our respect for Te Ao Maori.  But there is a deeply conservative vein to their politics, and people who are angry about, and essentially deeply terrified by change.

For wild eyed libertarians you have to go to Act and for xenophobia see New Zealand first.  MMP has allowed some of our tribes to form their own party.

When things are going well the cracks become invisible.  When things get tough, like from 2018 to 2022 they become very clear.

Nowadays things are much more settled and tribe four appears to be in control.  But for how long?

Anyway I am interested in the collective wisdom of Standardnistas.  What are tribes of National?