Roger really has a fantastic mind. If only we had more politicians like him.
Don Brash is the one thing that will inspire me to vote for National, rather than Act, at the next election (I'm still allowed to vote even though I am in the mother country now - hooray!)
Act seems to have been getting itself into all sorts of trouble recently - and I'm not just talking about Donna. The leadership thing has caused them to lack a bit of coherency and momentum when it comes to their policies. The best thing that could happen to Act at the moment is for National to win the next election and make Act its coalition partner. Much better chance of that happening with Brash as leader than Bill.
As for the Maori thing, I wish that more Maori would realise that theirs is a culture that most NZers cherish.
I was home from work for 3 days last week on study leave (I have to sit a qualified lawyers transfer test to qualify as an English solicitor). I live next to a primary school. On Wednesday afternoon, I thought I was going through a bit of a homesick phase because I could hear the haka. Eventually I realised that actually I could hear the haka - I looked out the window and the hall of the primary school was full of kids doing the haka. I got all misty-eyed. The same thing happened on Thursday and on Friday, just before my exam, strains of Tu tira mai nga iwi drifted through the window. These small children, at a primary school in Islington (not your most affluent London suburb, unless you count Tony Blair, and he sends his kids elsewhere to school) were learning our culture.
It binds us and identifies us as kiwis everywhere. I went to watch the rugby sevens at Twickenham a month or so ago and some english blokes were giving me a rough time about the number of Islanders on the team ("you guys have to import your players from the island colonies"). I told him that, while some of them may not have been born in NZ, NZ was the largest of the pacific islands and was full of islanders - it's part of our culture, and not just Maori.
There are bad sorts all over the world. Crime is not a matter of skin colour, nor is poverty. Perhaps if the lefty activists stopped rubbing statistics in every Maori's face that said "you are more likely than your white neighbour to commit a crime, be a teenage pregnancy statistic, whatever", then maybe they will fight harder to get out of the stereotype, rather than accept it as something they can't prevent.
Oh dear, I have ranted a bit - sorry all!
Long live Roger.
,,, their policies have remained consistent and unfaultering despite the question of leadership, which was resolved a month ago - in fact, their policies are so good that NATIONAL has burgled them lock, stock and ammo. ACT, having positioned themselves specifically as a Party of influence knows it can work well with King Don when he takes over next election. The country will be in good order by the time you're deported back [LOL].
I'm glad that Don Brash has revitalized National although I'm still inclined to vote Act on party vote. The situation pre-Brash was too much like Canada where not too long ago their main centre-right party, the Progressive Conservatives, was too wimpy and controlled by their Red Tories faction - kind of like our Simon Upton controlling National. The Canadian Alliance Party was the main principled party on the right (similar to our own Act Party) and has split their votes on the right (compounding the plight was that Canada is still using First Past the Post) and disasters followed.
They have recently merged into one party (Conservative party of Canada) and the Red Tories had gone into the Liberals camp. Though they did quite poorly in the election 2 weeks ago it was a dramatic improvement from 2000. Bearing in mind that our centre-right attracts major urban voters to a degree that our Canadian counterparts couldn't, I'm cautiously optimistic as to what will happen by the end of next year.