Entry 1594, on 2013-11-20 at 19:34:52 (Rating 4, Politics)
You've got to love New Zealand. In many other "first world" countries (OK, let's admit it, I mean the US) if a politician was asked about his religion and he didn't say he was a Christian he should probably just give up all political ambitions on the spot. Here when Conservative Party leader, Colin Craig, was asked and he admitted he was a Christian, and went on to say he prayed regularly, the implication was that he was a bit nutty (which of course, he is).
I'm not saying that anyone who is religious shouldn't be involved in politics. Just about everyone has a few crazy ideas (for example, our prime minsiter has a fanatical and entirely misplaced confidence in the free market which borders on a religion) and the important thing is to get a good mix so that one particular crazy ideology doesn't dominate (as neo-liberalism has for the last 30 years). So fair enough, in some ways it's quite good that we have a Christian Conservative party here now.
In fact looking through Craig's policies (because, let's be honest here, Colin Craig is the Conservative Party) I see a lot I agree with, because while he has socially conservative policies (which I would tend to reject) he is also economically conservative and has many ideas contrary to many of those held by his natural political partners in the National Party (which in the past has been the closest thing we had to a conservative party).
Unless things change greatly in the next year the current senior government party, National, will need the Conservatives to form a government after the elections next year. Given the differences between those two parties I can see there being at least as much conflict as there would be between the two parties which would form an alternative center-left government: the Greens and Labour.
And I haven't even mentioned the quite amusing likelihood of Winston Peters having some influence on the whole scenario. Yes, whichever major bloc wins (left, or right) things look like they could get interesting!
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