Still making conventions up

In November, David Cunliffe invented a new convention. He claimed there was a convention you did not have royal visits in an election year.

I labelled this “Making Shit up“, pointing out there were royal tours in 1954, 1963, 1981, 1990 and 2002.

This invented convention has now been modified to a claim made this morning in the Herald:

Labour leader David Cunliffe said the G20 invite was a “nice to have”and should not be a factor in determining the election date. He said he was more concerned about the timing of the Royal visit.

“New Zealand is not even a member of the G20 so the G20 is not going to bat an eyelid whether we are there or not.

First of all that isn’t the point. It’s a privilege and opportunity to attend. Anyway back to the main point:

A more important factor was the timing of the Royal visit in late April – the usual convention was that any such visits should be at least 6 months before an election. “I’d really challenge him to say whether he was going to abide by that convention.”

This convention is also invented.

The 1981 visit was just two months before the 1981 election and the 2002 visit five months before the 2002 election. David Cunliffe was a Government MP in 2002 so should know this.