So should Jacinda be thanking me?

Richard Harman writes at Politik:

On September 26, three days after the election, the National party’s pollster, David Farrar, on his Kiwblog said: “Twenty-two of the best 23 seats for NZ First are National held seats.

“This will also make it very interesting for them if they decide to support a Labour-led Government.

“I’m not sure all those provincial and rural voters that voted NZ First will be keen on the inevitable political correctness and anti-agriculture policies that will eventuate from such a Government.

“I’d say there would be a huge backlash.

“This is why I’m quite keen to have Winston go with Labour and Greens.

“ It will be sad for the country, but good for National in the long term as they’d ride a wave of discontent in 2020 and only need to pick up two more seats to govern. “

These comments from Farrar were frequently quoted by National Party sources spoken to by POLITIK over the past few weeks as a reason for the negotiators not to do a deal with NZ First.

I don’t actually think a blog post from me had any influence on the negotiations. But in case they did, Jacinda is welcome to send me a bottle of Pinot Noir as thanks!

More seriously I am glad that National didn’t abandon all its policies just to get a deal with Winston. NZ First got only 7% of the vote but wanted massive changes to economic policies that would have damaged New Zealand. Good on National for holding firm and standing up for the 45% of New Zealanders who did vote for them.