From speaking to people in real life who have told me they’re considering TOP, it seems like a lot of this sentiment is coming from disenchantment with the established parties and a mood to change.
Luxon’s clearly weak with no principles, and act and NZ First are extreme in their own ways. Ordinary people don’t like the government cutting funding for health or school lunches, and there’s a whiff of white supremacy around the current government with the anti-Te Reo bent that they’ve adopted and Winston’s recent comments about the Chinese. Add to that the persistently gloomy economy and is easy to want a change from the current lot.
What will be a concern for Labour is that people don’t see them as a viable alternative, and rightly or wrongly I think that is because people are not particularly enamoured with Chris Hipkins. To me he seems like a competent politician, but he doesn’t have the sparkle that Jacinda did when she first came into power and convinced people that change for the better was possible. That’s the niche that TOP seems to be capturing to some extent.
Greens and TPM are niche enough that I don’t think they’ll expand their slices of the voting pie much, and I say this as a Green voter who would like to see the party polling better.
I wonder who TOP voters are hoping will end up in power?
From the people I have been talking to, a lot want to see the current govt out. But not just have another round of flip-flop politics. This is key, otherwise Opportunity would not be hitting the mark so well this cycle.
The main concerns are around cost of living and lack of long term planning (flip-flop fatigue).
What will be a concern for Labour is that people don’t see them as a viable alternative, and rightly or wrongly I think that is because people are not particularly enamoured with Chris Hipkins.
I don’t think it is just Mr Hipkins that is the issue. Labour haven’t really been tooting their own horn; so to speak; where are their policy announcements, and the reasons to get behind them, that don’t amount to “we are not National”?
The more politically engaged people are very concerned with out processes; especially the worrying trend of, the increased use of urgency in passing legislation.
Luxon’s clearly weak with no principles
This is very true; National tried to catch lightning in a bottle again and failed; Luxon is just not as good as Key was. I personally really disliked John Key, but the nation disagreed with me. Luxon got played by Peters and Seymour at the negotiating table, and that has pretty much set the tone for his whole leadership (if you can call it that).
While I don’t generally like National, this current version is significantly worse than any of the past versions, and I put this down to the undue influence Act and NZF have over them. As you rightly point out, a weak leader leads to bad outcomes.
From speaking to people in real life who have told me they’re considering TOP, it seems like a lot of this sentiment is coming from disenchantment with the established parties and a mood to change.
Luxon’s clearly weak with no principles, and act and NZ First are extreme in their own ways. Ordinary people don’t like the government cutting funding for health or school lunches, and there’s a whiff of white supremacy around the current government with the anti-Te Reo bent that they’ve adopted and Winston’s recent comments about the Chinese. Add to that the persistently gloomy economy and is easy to want a change from the current lot.
What will be a concern for Labour is that people don’t see them as a viable alternative, and rightly or wrongly I think that is because people are not particularly enamoured with Chris Hipkins. To me he seems like a competent politician, but he doesn’t have the sparkle that Jacinda did when she first came into power and convinced people that change for the better was possible. That’s the niche that TOP seems to be capturing to some extent.
Greens and TPM are niche enough that I don’t think they’ll expand their slices of the voting pie much, and I say this as a Green voter who would like to see the party polling better.
I wonder who TOP voters are hoping will end up in power?
From the people I have been talking to, a lot want to see the current govt out. But not just have another round of flip-flop politics. This is key, otherwise Opportunity would not be hitting the mark so well this cycle.
The main concerns are around cost of living and lack of long term planning (flip-flop fatigue).
I don’t think it is just Mr Hipkins that is the issue. Labour haven’t really been tooting their own horn; so to speak; where are their policy announcements, and the reasons to get behind them, that don’t amount to “we are not National”?
The more politically engaged people are very concerned with out processes; especially the worrying trend of, the increased use of urgency in passing legislation.
This is very true; National tried to catch lightning in a bottle again and failed; Luxon is just not as good as Key was. I personally really disliked John Key, but the nation disagreed with me. Luxon got played by Peters and Seymour at the negotiating table, and that has pretty much set the tone for his whole leadership (if you can call it that).
While I don’t generally like National, this current version is significantly worse than any of the past versions, and I put this down to the undue influence Act and NZF have over them. As you rightly point out, a weak leader leads to bad outcomes.