Farrar vs polls vs spin
In a Kiwiblog post that seems to have been written by David mashing his fists against the keyboard, Farrar argues that Labour’s “week of headlines on blaming the Chinese for Auckland house prices has come to nought” (source).
I would argue slightly differently. Yes Labour increased one per cent, well within the margin of error, but the Greens also went up three per cent. This is a net gain of four per cent for the centre/left bloc. In my earlier post on this whole awful yucky mess, I forecast that Labour would lose some votes to the Greens and they knew they would. But that they were banking on losing some to the left but gaining some from the right.
This represents a win for Labour because it doesn’t matter how revolted people are by their policies, a vote for the Greens is effectively a vote for a Labour Government. It seems Labour is embracing MMP good and proper now.
Of course I could be completely wrong and giving them far more credit than they deserve, but it seems to me that’s the game they’re playing. And it’s a clever one. I think it’s gross. But it’s clever.
That’s like saying McDonalds doesn’t mind if you eat at BK because your still eating junk food.
Labour needs to get more people from the center to vote for it, not just share the left wing love around.
Labour embracing MMP might be new. Farrar embracing spin is not. Maybe the embrace of the former is the reason for the latter gathering a sort of momentum, to the obvious grasping, clasping, desperate embrace he is involved in.