No Epsom electoral petition

Labour have announced they are not going to do an electoral petition in Epsom.

It is interesting to note that Labour are assisting Winston Peters with his electoral petition in Tauranga. I am amazed they are doing so, and can only assume it is part of a secret coalition, sorry executive government, deal.

I’ve chatted to many Labour people about Tauranga before the elction and they all agreed Peters losing was in the best interests of stable Government. Because a Peters without Tauranga would have no safety net, and hence be far less likely to play silly buggers and bring whomever is in Government down, as falling below 5% would mean oblivion.

Now I can not work out how on earth Labour can win by assisting the electoral petition. If it is sucessful then Clarkson will go and his replacement will be either Peters or the new National candidate (Labour have said they will not stand).

Now if National wins any by-election then all that has happened is an MP who can potentially embarass National (‘left testicle’) is replaced by one who won’t be as likely. And if Peters wins, then Labour will have a coalition partner who is far more likely to rock the boat as he has the security of a seat behind him.

Going back to Epsom, you can ignore what Williams says about Labour wanting Hide to stay in Parliament. As Rodney says, if this was the case Clark wouldn’t have told people to vote National to keep Hide out.