Well, if National was going to be able to beat the sterling Grant Robertson it needed a damned fine candidate - someone who truly reflected the Wellington set: smart, liberal and economically sensible. Labour’s candidate, Grant Robertson, fits that profile extremely well. National, on the other hand, has decided to go with former ACT MP, Stephen Franks. A smart but ultra-dry conservative.
Franks a lawyer with an admirable commercial and legal background developed in parliament a strong focus on crime and financial regulation. Franks proved himself to be a very able MP and he would no doubt make valuable contributions to parliament and National if he were to return.
The thing is, he’s a terrible candidate for Wellington Central and Robertson is a very good candidate. So, unless Franks scores a decent position on National’s list, he chosen the wrong place to make a charge back into the House.
March 20, 2008 at 10:58 am
I see Farrrar’s commenting that the selection was made on the basis that Wellington Central is Labour’s regardless. I tend to agree but think you’re summation of Franks electoral appeal makes him an odd choice. Glad to see Paul Quinn miss out however, he’s a prick.
March 20, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Franks’ election was part of a deal National made with the sensible sentencing trust. In my opinion the SST has been done but we’ll have to wait for the Nat’s list to know for sure.
March 20, 2008 at 12:21 pm
And Quinn speaks so highly of you Mardy
March 20, 2008 at 12:33 pm
BB, are you another small man trading on past glories?
Robsinsod, that’s interesting inside information - can you elaborate?
BTW, I don’t think Robertson should or will relax simply because of the Franks selection. Franks will campaign effectively, or the more so given that Farrar’s definitely not his campaign manager. National will probably do better with Franks than they did with Blumsky which is astounding really since Blumsky was damn near the perfect candidate just very very badly managed (and beaten by a far superior candidate in Hobbs).
March 20, 2008 at 1:30 pm
And of course even in safe electorate seats there are a lot of party votes up for grabs that don’t always go the same way as the electorate vote (particularly in politically clued up electorates like Wellington Central). In that sense there are very few, if any, ’safe’ seats under MMP.
March 20, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Mardy - as you know the sensible sentencing trust and National share plenty of financial backers. These backers have also been involved in brokering third party support for National’s positions (not overtly of course - that would breach the EFA) from the SST in exchange for Franks getting a shot at the title. I would expect to see a lot more double-act stuff such as today’s story about crime - http://www.stuff.co.nz/4446960a11.html - over the next few months. Obviously Franks doesn’t stand a chance but it may be enough of a sop to keep relations up.
I’m pretty certain the same thing was planned for the FSC until it was discredited by yourselves and the standard (oh, and by Farrar’s mishandling of the campaign). As you are well aware DPF is a Franks backer (he’s trying to get his hands on Franks’ campaign but other Nats around Franks are wary of him after the FSC fiasco). It is also worth noting that Davey has been doing polling for Family First (presumably from national HQ) and the rumour is he’s done work for the SST.
Of course the Davey connection is just informed speculation on my part but the fact that Franks’ candidacy was a bargaining chip came from an extremely reliable source.
Oh and by the way, can you please ban Bruv?
March 20, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Oh and I agree with Irish that they’ll be using third party legal suits as a campaign tool http://www.thestandard.org.nz/?p=937 I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…
March 20, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Now that John Key has told ACT to “bugger off” perhaps Franks will be a very short-lived candidate for the Nats?
This is one hell of a story, like Mallard v Henare but with real blood. Stay tuned.
March 20, 2008 at 8:11 pm
I doubt very much that “bugger off” is the word behind closed doors.
March 20, 2008 at 10:24 pm
So Key is saying that it will need a leadership change for National before Roger Douglas could be a Minister in a National-led government.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4447173a10.html
National leader John Key has ruled out Sir Roger Douglas receiving a Cabinet post in any government led by him.
Key told reporters this afternoon that the “radical right-wing agenda” outlined by Sir Roger at a press conference earlier today ruled him out of a position around the Cabinet table.
He also said National would not be able to work with ACT, considered its most likely coalition partner, if the party pursued the philosophies of Sir Roger.
“If ACT are hell bent on following a radical right-wing agenda and won’t fit in with a moderate pragmatic agenda then we can’t work with them. They’re ruling themselves out if that’s what they are doing,” Key said.
March 20, 2008 at 11:34 pm
And not only did he say it, Jaymam, but he said it to the entire press gallery, to the TV cameras, on the steps of Parliament. This was not a “beat-up” based on some obscure provincial newspaper or student radio show. It was definitive, it was black and white, and he will never be able to pretend he didn’t say it.
ACT backed him into a corner, by pushing him too far. Now Key can’t go through the election campaign saying “all options are open”, because he has specifically ruled out one of them - and it’s the only one the right really want. But now he’s said it, he’s got to stick to it - or he’s toast.
It’s gonna be fascinating to see how this one plays out.
March 21, 2008 at 12:33 am
How odd that Kiwiblog has not yet mentioned Key’s rejection of Roger Douglas.
Audrey Young: ‘National leader John Key says he’ll “be buggered” if he is going to sell New Zealanders down the river with Roger Douglas’ radical right wing agenda.’
March 21, 2008 at 1:23 am
i can’t tell you how happy I am that Douglas has re-emerged on the political front. Key’s going to struggle to manage ACT who’ll wedge them on tax, welfare, education and health. Key’s inexperience against Hide and Douglas will mean it’ll play out far longer than necessary and candidate selections like Stephen Franks in WC will make matters worse still.
March 21, 2008 at 7:56 am
mardy
“i can’t tell you how happy I am that Douglas has re-emerged on the political front”
Really?…you are a lot smarter than that Mardy, with Sir Roger back the ACT party will easily achieve 5% come election day, no longer does Comrade Key have to shop around for a coalition partner and no longer does he have to consider doing a deal with Peters.
The good thing from my point of view is that despite what Comrade Key and English have to say about Douglas they will HAVE To listen to them when it comes to forming a govt, make no mistake the country needs Douglas if only to repair the damage caused by Kullen over the last nine years.
P.S Would it not be wonderful if Comrade Key and Clark could get together before the election and agree that neither of them would involve Winston in any future govt
March 21, 2008 at 10:59 am
BB, ACT may well achieve the 5% and I’m pretty sure that’s what’s motivating them, however their success may well be at National’s expense both because they’ll gather almost all of their additional votes from National voters and also because some National voters are essentially centrists and may swing back to Labour. Politics in NZ is a contest for the middle ground, not the margins. Also, as much as I would like to agree re Winston, he’s proving to be a far more responsible character than I’d've thought possible (acknowledging he was in fact a very unremarkable Treasurer until Shipley took him on) and it is simply not democratic to ignore the votes of people you don’t like.
March 21, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Roger Douglas twists the knife. Actual quote, on Radio Live today:
“Key’s going to have to deal with ACT, or someone’s going to have to deal with ACT …”
Who does he have in mind? Does Bill have the numbers? And how do the Nats feels about their leader being publicly undermined?
Perhaps David Farrar will tell us - but strangely, he seems to want to talk about something else. Anything else. Hmmm … I wonder why.
March 21, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Poor old DPF, he’s getting desperate now:
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2008/03/earliest_easter_for_100_years.html
Hey Nero, temperature’s rising, here’s your fiddle.
March 21, 2008 at 8:16 pm
hmm, the date of easter. cutting edge political commentary that
March 24, 2008 at 9:37 am
DPF’s links service seems to have broken down. A week ago he would have been rounding up the political reports and columns from the Sunday/Monday papers. Now that civil war has started between his own party and his ACT-ual beliefs, he’s not so keen.
Better cut out the middle man, and go straight to the Herald, Stuff or TV websites, if you want to know the gory details about the blood-spattered Right-Fight.