NOT PC’s patented, principled voting guide

So Liberty Scott has posted his own voting guide for tomorrow—who to vote for in which electorate, and why—and I promised I’d do something similar.

So here goes.

First of all, remember that in ninety-nine percent of electorates the sitting MP and one of other buggers is already going to parliament whatever you and every other voter does to throw them out, which means the only vote that really matters as fare as the make-up of parliament is concerned is the party vote.

Which means your electorate vote is your “protest vote.” The vote that tells your MPs what you’re really thinking.

I’ve based my choices unswervingly on two rock-solid principles: either that a candidate advances or is at least sympathetic to freedom, OR that I know them, and they’re not a complete arsehole.

And since the marginal value of votes for smaller parties are higher than votes for larger, I’ve tended to favour those.

There is one basic difference between my choices and Scott’s. He wants to offer you a vote in every electorate. I don’t. My basic default position is that, unless there’s a good reason to do otherwise, you should stay home.

If however you insist on voting, then I suggest your default position should be voting Libertarianz in your party vote (since a vote for any other party is a vote for more government, not less), and leaving your electorate vote blank—unless, that is, you are in one of the electorates mentioned below:

Auckland Central – David Seymour – ACT
The ‘Battle of the Babes’ is as vacuous as they are. One’s a powerluster, and the other is dimwitted. Seymour is a good bloke in a party with too few of them. Give him your vote.

Botany – leave your ballot blank
Scott reckons National’s Jami-Lee Ross deserves your tick because he quoted Thatcher and Reagan in his maiden speech. He quote Maggie saying “the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money to spend.”  The problem with Mr Ross however is that he’d done nothing all his own life but spend other people’s money, and then vote for more of the same. Fuck him.

Christchurch/Ilam/Port Hills/Waimakariri/Selwyn etc – vote against the Czars
A vote for any National candidate in Christchurch is unconscionable. What the earthquake didn’t destroy, they have. And will do. Do not under any circumstances give them your vote. Punish them for punishing the city’s businessmen and women, and for ensuring home-owners are left without options. Vote for anyone, anyone at all, just as long as it’s not one of the Blue pricks. Even Lianne Dalziel.

Clutha Southland – Don Nicolson – ACT
If you vote for Sir Double Dipton, Lord English of Karori, then you need your head read. Don is a good bloke who wants the ETS abandoned. Give him your vote.

Coromandel – Hugh Kininmonth– Labour
National’s replacement for stroppy local Sandra Goudie is carpet-bagger Scott Simpson. Scott’s a family friend, but frankly he’s too wet for Coromandel—a seat that Goudie turned from marginal into a safe blue seat. Friends tell me Kininmonth is a good bloke in the wrong party—and enough votes for decent Labour electorate candidates like him might displace some of their worse ones who hope to get in on the list. So vote Kininmonth.

Epsom …
If there’s one electorate that tells you how pathetic MMP is it’s Epsom—where a vote for the National candidate will help Labour, and a vote for the “Liberal Party” candidate will get you a conservative.
I can tell you right now what I will not be doing in Epsom. I will not be lifting a finger to help the Minister of Rhyming Slang back into parliament. Not even a pencil. This is a man I wouldn’t piss on if he was on fire.
So for the first time in my life I’ll be giving my vote to a National candidate. To Paul Goldsmith. If, that is, I can bring myself to do that. And if you can. (If you can’t, then abstain.)
Because a man who talks fiscal responsibility when he was the biggest spending mayor in the country doesn’t deserve your support. He deserves a kick in the arse. Because a man who talks reform yet as MP opposed everything Ruth Richardson did deserves not a tick but a kick. Because a man who tells his own leader to go to hell when his leader, Don Brash, advocated applying their party’s principle to marijuana doesn’t deserve your vote. He deserves a belt in the face. Give it to him. Metaphorically, anyway. (And those who say you have to vote for this slime in order to get other ACT MPs into parliament, I say “fuck ‘em".” I say they should have thought of that when they picked this piece of shit to run in their anchor seat.  A vote for Banks is a vote for Banks—a vote to give him control of any caucus ACT might possibly be able to muster. If that’s not enough to make your skin crawl, then you’re not alive. And you and I have nothing to talk about.)

Hamilton East – Garry Mallett – ACT
Unlike Banks, Gary is for smaller government and (somewhat) more freedom. And he’s a good bloke. So by all means pin your picture of Labour’s Sehai Orgad up on your bedroom wall, but give your vote to Gary.

Hamilton West - Tim Wikiriwhi – Independent
The Blue Team’s candidate is an unremarkable “Blue Green”; the Reds have the unenlightened Sue Moron. And why would you vote for them anyway when you can vote Wikiriwhi—a man who eats, sleeps, breathes and writes about freedom and liberty. If only he could spell. But vote for him nonetheless.

Invercargill - Shane Pleasance – Libertarianz
Shane is Libertarianz’ president, Director of the Southland Chamber of Commerce and he believes in Invercargill, freedom and personal responsibility.  He definitely deserves it. (And yes, I did pinch that write-up from his blog. But it’s still true.)

Kaikoura – Ian Hayes - Libertarianz
Ian Hayes has them rolling in the aisles at public meetings. In a good way. So give him your vote in this safe National seat.

Mana - Richard Goode – Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party
Richard has swapped membership in a party promoting freedom in all things to one promoting freedom in one only. Nonetheless he’s not the Forrest Gump of Mana, Kris Faafoi. Nor is he professional Maori and token woman Hekia Parata. And he was responsible for setting up this blog for me, way back in 2005. So in return, give him your vote.

Mangere – Claudette Hauiti – National
Claudette is a lovely woman without a chance in a wall-to-wall Red seat. So help out a woman who does talk about less government and more personal responsibility by giving her your tick.

Manurewa – David Peterson – ACT
David is a libertarian and an advocate of Austrian economics—and he still needs to return one of my books.  So help me get it back, if you please, by giving him your vote, then asking him to return it. If you’d be so kind. Because he is a decent fellow, which can’t be said about his opponents—a career bureaucrat, and another Wet Blue Green. Vote Peterson.

Maungakiekie - Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga – National
Vote Sam just to piss off Carol Beaumont, the Marxist who believes the seat is hers by right.

Nelson - Maryan Street – Labour
Maryan Street is hardly the worst Labour candidate to stand on a husting. And she has one unique qualification: she is not Nick Smith. There is neither time nor space here to recount the reasons this mad moron, this Minister of the RMA and the ETS, of the Kyoto Treaty and of forced training for ECE teachers, deserves to be given the white pill. And I don’t mean aspirin. Vote Street. And if you see Smith out and about, punch him for me. In the face. Hard.

New Lynn - Tim Groser – National
Speaking of a punch in the face, there is one other character in the current parliament who competes with Smith for the title of most deserving. Do anything you have to, anything you can, to punish the wrecker of Telecom.  Even voting Groser.

North Shore – Michael Murphy – Libertarianz
No, don’t vote Brash. As the man who hand-picked Banks, and who is therefore single-handedly responsible for the demise of his own bid to keep National honest (which bid he has now conceded is over by agreeing to be John Key’s compliant lapdog should ACT get over the line), Brash sadly doesn’t deserve a tick. He deserves a lesson in principle.
So vote for Libz stalwart Michael Murphy, someone who could give it to him.

Northcote - Peter Linton – Libertarianz
Peter is an untiring advocate for your right to self-defence. Give him the biggest and loudest tick you can muster. And then leave the polling booth happy.

Northland – Lynette Stewart – Labour
National’s Mike Sabin is obsessed with prohibition, with ramping up the War on Drugs, with criminalising victimless crimes, and is unconcerned with what this will demonstrably do to gang profits (raise them) and to peaceful people (criminalise them).
So vote for anyone instead of this egregious busybody because at 60 on National’s list he needs your vote to get in. Vote for anyone to stop Sabin, even Lynette Stewart. Tell National the time for prohibition is over.

Ohariu – Sean Fitzpatrick – Libertarianz
Ohariu, parliament and the country’s hairdressers need to see the back of Peter Dunne.  But that doesn’t mean we need to see the front of Charles Chauvel. Tell them both to go to hell and vote for the bloke who runs the most successful martial arts academy in Wellington.  And then invite him to take a trip to Nelson…

Otaki - Peter McCaffrey – ACT
Nathan Guy is like fog, wet and thick. Labour’s Peter Foster is like dross, useless and nondescript. But McCaffrey is another good young man in the wrong party, a chap who led a principled and eventually successful campaign against compulsory student unionism. Give him a big tick.

Pakuranga – Chris Simmons – ACT
National’s Maurice Williamson took the leaky home issue and as minister proceeded to make it worse by using it as an excuse to corral builders, designers, Tom Cobley and all into what amounts to compulsory state unions. Tell him to go to hell. If voting Simmons can do that (and there’s precious few other choices on offer) then do it, I say.

Tamaki – Stephen Berry -  Independent
Berry is funny, energetic, a principled advocate for freedom,  and he’s really stepped up in his campaign for this electorate. None of which you can say for National’s Simon O’Connor. Give Berry the big tick. He deserves it.

Tamaki-Makaurau - Pita Sharples - Maori Party
Even the Labour Party don’t deserve Shane Jones—and if voting Sharples keeps out the Minister for Self Abuse, then it’s worth keeping the racist seats for another term, until the Maori Part fold in the next one. So vote against Jones by voting Sharples. If you must.

Te Atatu – Phil Twyford – Labour
Tau Henare is a bloke who discovered at middle age that life in parliament is a comfortable berth. Phil Twyford is the bloke who ran a principled campaign against Rodney’s super—shitty Super City. On balance then, there’s no contest. Tell tau to get a real job, and make Twitter safe for decent people again.

Te Tai Tokerau – Kelvin Davis – Labour
Davis is sane. Hone is the opposite. ‘Nuff said, really.

Waiariki – Te Ururoa Flavell – Maori Party
Flavell has surprised me often by saying good things on property rights and the economy. Yes, it’s true. Reward him with your favour.

Wairarapa - Richard McGrath – Libertarianz
Let me just quote Liberty Scott on this one:  “Vote for NZ’s most freedom loving GP – Dr Richard McGrath for Libertarianz. He’s a fine man, and has a good profile in the electorate.  You don’t need to think twice about this.   National’s John Hayes will probably win given his comfortable majority of around 6,700, but I strongly endorse McGrath politically and personally as the one candidate of all I most would like to see elected, across the country.  He would shake up healthcare, the war on drugs and would always take a balanced and measured approach, that adds up to whether any government measure reduces freedom and individual rights or increases it.  Vote McGrath with pride.”
And vote secure in the knowledge that he trounced all the other candidates in the district quiz.

Waitakere – Peter Osborne – Libertarianz
Minister for Expanding the Welfare Rolls Paula Bennett is battling the Repulsion Camel, Carmel Sepuloni out west. Declare a plague on both their houses by voting for a bloke who knows that welfare doesn’t help those it pays for. It destroys them. Both Bennett and the Camel will be in regardless anyway, so vote for the good bloke. Vote Osborne.

Wellington Central – Reagan Cutting – Libertarianz
In this electorate you can vote for state-worshipper (Grant Robertson), state-worshipper lite (Foster-Bell), libertarian lite (Whittington) or the real thing. Accept no imitations. Vote Cutting. Do it for the Gipper.

Whangarei - Helen Hughes – Libertarianz 
As Helen told her local newspaper, “A man cannot be freed till he knows he is in bondage.'' If you do, then a vorte for Helen Hughes is your only option.
And  as  the newspaper profile demonstrates, not only is Helen Hughes more colourful, more principled and more effervescent than the wet, limp, virtually lame Phil (I’ve Done Nothing in 3 Years But Buy A Bottle Of Wine) Heatley, she is a better sculptor too. So reward her and punish him. Tell the man who’s helped make affordable housing even more of a pipe dream to go to hell. Vote Hughes.

So there you have it. A few different recommendations than Scott’s, but only a few. I make it a recommendation for

6 ACT candidates, 9 Libz, at least half-a-dozen Labour, 2 from the Racist Party, 2 Independents and 1 ALCP type. But then I can’t count for custard.

Enjoy your voting tomorrow. At least it means this turgid campaign is finally over.

And that at least is something to celebrate.

And who knows, if we’re lucky we might get a few weeks without a government.

Wouldn’t that be nice.

Some bad advice for Nick Clegg [updated]

Every bullfrog and his leg-rope is giving British Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg advice on what he should do next, even NZ bloggers—and Rodney Hide--which is odd, when you think about it, because a fortnight ago very few of those bloggers (or Rodney Hide) even knew who Clegg was; and because Clegg is unlikely to be reading New Zealand bloggers to pick up tips on what to do next.

And even odder still, since so much the advice being proffered consists of telling Clegg to sign up for a “confidence and supply” agreement in return for action on some sort of proportional representation system.

Why is that so odd?  It’s odd for two reasons.

First, the Brits are already gun-shy, now, at the horse-trading and log-rolling they’re seeing as a result of this hung parliament, an unusual result in the first-past-the-post system they’ve enjoyed for centuries.  So how are they going to feel about the person or party who resolves this present uncertainty by offering much more of it; who delivers a system that virtually guarantees this kind of wheeling and dealing necessary after every election, and every time any major piece of legislation is being discussed.

I suspect that “gratitude” isn’t the word that will be used.

Second, most of the recommendations from local bloggers have averred that “confidence and supply” agreements have “worked” here in New Zealand.  But have they?  Just take a roster of every party here who’s signed up to a “confidence and supply” agreement with one of the big parties, and see where they are now.  Alliance, NZ First, Mauri Pacific, Te Tawharau… Most of them now gone and all-but forgotten, all of them wiped out by their association with government and the ministerial baubles they were offered—burned off by their closeness to power, and inability to sufficiently distinguish themselves from their larger partner. (To which list you can add ACT, for whom extinction now is only a matter of time; but not the race-based Maori Party since their existence is uniquely backstopped by holding race-based seats, nor Jim Anderton’s and Peter Dunne’s one-man bands—whose existence has been maintained by force of personality. This last, by the way, is a joke.)

So if “confidence and supply” agreements have “worked” they have worked only for the larger party, not for their erstwhile smaller partners that have been chewed up and spat out just to maintain the larger parties’ grip on power—and it’s hardly worked for New Zealand either, since some of the worst law we’ve seen in the last fifteen years has been either the product of a minor party (Sue Bradford’s tail wagging everyone’s anti-smacking dog, for just one example), or has been foisted on them in the sure expectation it will bury them (Auckland’s super-sized bureaucracy, anyone, in which Rodney Hide has invested his party’s little remaining political capital,and for which he’s enthusiastically made himself the scapegoat), and it’s certainly produced most of the worst political grandstanding anyone would ever want to see (a chocolate fish for every time Winston Peters has staged a walk-out would leave you feeling as sick as we all do when his face pops up on our TV screen).

So in that respect, signing up to a “confidence and supply” agreement is hardly the sort of advice Mr Clegg should take, is it, unless he wants to be reduced to a Dunne-like rump.  (And who would want that ignominy?) No, the simple fact is that “confidence and supply” agreements have been disastrous here for every smaller party propping up a larger one.

No. A much better option for a minor party, one I’ve always favoured ahead of either coalition or “confidence-and-supply” agreements,” is the cast-iron promise that as a party you would vote en bloc for any measure that moves towards more freedom (however small the move) just as long as there is no new coercion involved.

That’s a cast-iron promise that any major party could take to the bank-or, at least, to the Treasury benches. It would work as a “ratchet,” moving the country towards more freedom one baby step at a time.  And it would have every politician and every political journalist in the country assiduously studying what freedom actually means, so they’d understand precisely what was being promised. [About which, more here.]

Mind you, however, to make such a promise the party themselves would need to have some sort of firm commitment to maximising freedom, and removing unnecessary controls.  So in that respect, since that project and those principles are is of absolutely no interest to Clegg’s clog-wearers, that advice is about as useless as all the rest of the advice Mr Clegg is now getting.

But at least I’m sufficiently self-aware to know that.

UPDATE:  Devil’s Kitchen makes his own prediction:

    “You can bet your last penny that—no matter what the outcome is of the backroom deals that are currently being undertaken—the resolution will have been arrived at not for our benefit, but theirs.
    “The idea of a hanged Parliament continues to look ever so attractive...”

And, on the splits that are delaying all the various “three-ways” being proposed,

    “Of all the three main parties, it is the split in the LibDems that has always been the most apparent. On one side you have the (mostly) classical liberal Orange Bookers and, on the other, the completely hat-stand, socialist, sandal-wearing element.
    “I am sure that the Labour Party is just gearing up for a massive internal punch-up but, in the meantime, I suspect that it is the LibDem ferrets who are fighting in that sack...”