Last night was like no election night we can ever remember. The 2014 General Election may just as well have been a First Past the Post election as National stormed to an outright majority; 61 seats in a Parliament of 121 MP's. New Zealand will have the stable, centre-right government it needs.
The sideshows were largely ignored, and people focused on the Big Game. A friend posted a list on Facebook this morning of ten things we have learned from the 2014 election campaign; #10 read thus:
10) that, in the end, you can trust the New Zealand public to get it right.
The New Zealand public sorted out the wheat from the chaff and the sheep from the goats when they started going to the polls on September 3rd. The spectacular failure of the Moment of Truth on Monday was definitely a factor, and National has reported its internal polling surged a couple of percentage points in the last days of the campaign. But the public did indeed "get it right".
And they didn't need our help. We were silent for the last four weeks of the election campaign after being caught in the crossfire of the Hager book. Today, we want to thank Mr Hager for doing us a favour!
"How so?" you may ask. Blogging can become an obsession, and we were in grave danger of that when fate, in the form of Hager, intervened. In the last four weeks we have rediscovered some balance in our life. No longer do we head straight to the computer when we get out of bed in the morning. We can read articles now without mentally trying to find an angle to blog about. We're in a much better head-space.
We said some time ago we might take a sabbatical after the election. It is in fact going to be a permanent sabbatical, and this will be the last post on Keeping Stock; our last hurrah.
We were just going to quietly fade away, but we have had a number of e-mails and comments from long-time readers enquiring as to our welfare and our future plans. We're very grateful for those, and it has reinforced that we have provided an avenue for discourse over the last few years.
We're far from perfect, and we have made mistakes along the way. For that we apologise without reservation. But what's done is done, and if there are consequences, we will own them.
We've often said we, like Oscar Wilde, can resist anything except temptation. But our resolve is strong, and this is definitely Keeping Stock's last hurrah. Any future endeavours, unlikely as they are, will be open, transparent, and with a name attached.
We'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has visited, commented and interacted over the last seven years; your support has been very much appreciated. But now it's time for us to move on. The country is in the very best of hands, and our raison d'etre has ceased to have any meaning.
This is our last hurrah; it's been nice knowing you all.
Tony
UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to leave a comment. There are too many to respond individually, but we will be in touch with those for whom we have e-mail addresses at some point.
We commiserate with our Green friend Dave bsprout Kennedy; at 7pm on Saturday night he may have had dreams of becoming an MP, and good luck to him for trying. But those dreams were quickly dashed. And we almost feel sorry for David Cunliffe this morning; almost!
That's it; retirement awaits us...
David Farrar blogs:
Over the last week or so I have seriously considered walking away from Kiwiblog.
While some will take huge pleasure in what has happened, let me say
that it is genuinely traumatic to have hacked e-mails to and from
yourself (even if you were not the one hacked) floating around, and to
also realise that because you are a blogger and pollster, it means you
and your office is fair game. One of the worst moments was having a
senior staff member of mine, who is also a very good friend, tell me
that she had been worried that I might think she was the leak, as our
politics are different. I hate the impact this is having on so many
people.
Some of the revelations coming out,
also do not show aspects of the blogosphere in a good light (to put it
mildly) and I’ve thought quite a bit about how this impacts the wider
blogosphere.
I don’t believe that the book shows me having acted in any way
inappropriately. I have gone out of my way to be open about my
background and leanings and relationships, and I follow my own views
when I blog – hence why I campaigned against the Government last year on
the copper tax (despite being a Chorus shareholder!). I never have
taken any form of money or kind for blog posts, and disclose even the
mist minor gifts.
There is part of me that wants to walk away so I am no longer a
target. Politics is far less important to me than family and friends.
I’ve also considered whether to do what Cameron often calls me, and
become a travel and arts blogger, and have less or almost no focus on
politics. But the trouble is the blog for me is an outlet on what I
think – what I like, what annoys me, what amuses me, what appals me. And
I can’t imagine it can function as that, if I try and avoid politics. I
do genuinely blog because I like having my say – that is my primary
motivation.
Also I do like to think, without being immodest, that I do make good
contributions to politics in NZ. I can data crunch, I have a 20+ year
history of political knowledge which can put things in context, I have
good relationships, and I generally get good feedback on my commentary
in the mainstream media. I’m far far from irreplaceable, but there are
not that many people who have the time, skills and employment situation
that allows them to substantively blog.
So after some reflection, I have decided to carry on, but to make
some changes. I want to improve trust in myself, Kiwiblog, and perhaps
the wider blogosphere. So I’ve decided on the following.
You can read about the changes DPF is proposing to make to Kiwiblog here. He's obviously given this considerable thought before blogging his thoughts; the cyber-equivalent of putting pen to paper, we suppose.
We've been doing our share of thinking over the last few days as well. We've often said that actions have consequences, and we're reflecting on that at the moment. Where that takes us is yet to be decided.
It would be easy to walk away, and delete the blog and the seven years of effort that have gone into it. Whether or not that is the right thing to do however is one of the things we are reflecting on. It would be the path of least resistance, but that doesn't make it the right decision.
After the meeting we had yesterday, we have work coming out our ears. At times we have put blogging ahead of work, which isn't a good strategy. Our focus this week is going to be where it needs to be, and that may not be the blogosphere!
We'll still be blogging, but it's not going to be our first priority when we stagger out to the lounge in the morning, and our blogging will not be as frequent. And to be fair, we may even discover that there's more to life than trying to have an opinion about everything!
As we flew back from Christchurch late yesterday afternoon the views along the Kaikoura coastline and mountains and of the Marlborough Sounds were stunning. But they were also a reminder of how insular one can become. That's definitely food for thought...
