National mid-year party
Delayed blogging today as I only got home at 2 am after National’s mid-year Caucus party. And didn’t even crash until 3 am as for some reason I thought ringing my friend Anna in Germany was a good thing to do at 2 am. Amazing what one thinks is a good idea after a few drinks.
As one can be expected it was a lively affair, despite the traditional Karaoke being replaced by a DJ/Jukebox. Still lots of dancing until the wee hours.
Very amusing chat with Green MP Keith Locke. Keith (who is probably the most left-wing MP in Parliament) proclaimed that he was attending because he wanted to be thought of as National’s 50th MP. Heh heh.
The place was packed. By the end of the night I had had my drink (sadly mainly red wine) spilt on me four times as people bumped into you. Luckily I was not wearing a white shirt. I also was responsible for one spillage onto someone else (sorry Rachel).
Was reminded by one friend that it was exactly four years ago at this party she met her now husband. That was one of the better parties!
As expected, I woke up late this morning and in the rush to get ready for TV cut myself shaving. Luckily the TVNZ makeup staff are very good at covering self mutilations!
Politically, had some interesting conversations, mainly with journalists around political management, or the lack of it from the Government. As I have often said, they were damn good at this up until a year or so ago.
But the 20 free hours of early childhood education fiasco is a prime example of what one can only call political incompetence. This should be an incredibly popular policy. They are spending something like $150 million to help working families with over a thousand dollars a year for their childcare costs. Yet somehow they have managed to turn it into a PR disaster.
They should be saying “No in some cases it doesn’t cover all the costs, but we’re damn proud that we have made a major contribution to helping working families, and a partial subsidy is a hell of a lot better than no subsidy at all”. But no, they keep playing semantic games trying to insist it is totally free for all parents, and they just piss off everyone – parents, ECEs, and the media. It’s not just an own goal, it’s what one journalist called the “Maharey reverse Midas touch”.
Chatted of course to a few National MPs also. Was pleased to see that while there was an air of optimism, there was no complacency at all. People know that as great as a 17% lead in the polls is, they only have a 5% to 7% lead over the non CR parties, and that is the clincher.
What I also found encouraging was the attitude (and I stress this is based on general chatting at over drinks, not a formal party position in anyway) that even if National was in a position to govern in its own right, many see the merit of trying to build as broad a Government as possible. I certainly support such an approach, because that can increase your longevity in Government.
Anyway a great night. A big thanks to all the staff who not only organised it but spent much of the evening passing around the large amount of food and drink. And even more pleasing I can report that there were savouries and sausage rolls, which no doubt the Government will soon be banning. The only thing missing was Cheerios!