The Greens' vision remains highly relevant - witness the huge emphasis new US President Barack Obama is placing upon renewable energy and energy efficiency.
However, as a party, the Greens, positioned to the left of Labour and their votes not needed by a centre-right Government, will struggle for relevance as political players.
Their options are to spend this parliamentary term either in ideologically pure but not-so-splendid isolation or roll up their sleeves and co-operate with National and achieve something concrete.
Like it or not, the Greens ARE in isolation. It was, as Armstrong observed in his opening, the Greens who slammed the door in John Key's face, not that he needed them. They've made their bed, and in our humble opinion, John Key should make them sleep in it a little longer.
There is one positive however for National should they decide to work closer with Red Russel and his comrades. Key could totally isolate Labour, and leave them as the Neville-no-mates opposition (we don't count Jim Anderton - he is Labour in everything but name). That could be a good strategy looking forward to the 2011 election, but there are risks as well. Personally speaking, we would rather the Greens were nowhere near the seat of power.
Interesting times await us.
5 comments:
According to his official bio, Jim Anderton was born in 1938. (21 January, btw, sorry we are a little late with our greetings, Jim).
That means he will be just shy of 74 when the next election rolls around. Will he want to sign on again until he is 77?
Unless a Labour win was a dead cert, and he was guaranteed a senior Cabinet role, I doubt it.
Inv2
Simon Upton in the DomPost writes on the Greens as well.
Part of the problem, which surprisingly Upton does not touch on is the substantial non green element in the Greens coupled with their failure to actually mature as a party, which is why they are increasingly irrelevant and will be whilst they have Keith Locke, Delahunty and Kedgley.
bobux - the REAL question is : Will the good electors of Wigram allow a pensioner to be re-elected? They did this year, but I suspect that many of Anderton's key constituency will also have met their maker by the time that the next election rolls around.
Adam - you're right on the money as ever. If the Greens stuck to their knitting as the cliche goes, they would be a credible alternative to voters. But they don't. They seem to have an arrogant and perverse conviction that they know what is best for you and I in all manner of areas, and they lack the common-sense to take in the fact that a significant portion of the electorate doesn't actually like being patronised.
Adam - I thought that was a glaring omission in Upton's column. Since the loss of Rod Donald is there actually a credible person in the Greens - I don't think so.
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