Who's more gobsmacked? The Blue team finding out one of their card-carrying members has donated to a Red, or the other way round?

Collins wants us to believe she understood "after the dinner" to mean the same evening rather than any later time. And that it was coincidence she corrected this misinterpretation after parliament could no longer ask her about it for a couple…

Unseemly whinging on Radio NZ (4m audio)

Respectfully I'd counsel that she did most of the 'ducking' herself!

Innocence is shown by sinking,
– guilt if you are a floater...

a weakness in the current implementation, yes – but the concept of voters responding to lists that more accurately reflect the population than FPP did is easily borne out by the faces in parliament now compared with 20 years…

who asked for that?
#strawmanmuch

Or to put it succinctly... graft.

wouldn't dreme of it

How could I forget the others?
ACT, Prebble just calls out “Anybody there?” and its first up best dressed…
Untied Furniture is easy…. “Can you do hair?”
As for The Conservatines ” Hi, I’m Colin and this…. is my friend Craig”

No wonder I have problems with people…

Under MMP, an electorate MP is no more deserving than a list one. The sooner silly FPP thinking like that dies out, the better.

Seeing as we are in the South Island, this guy seems a tad disillusioned and rightfully so.
Some of the comments though are just mean.

that must be why they are still getting stick from the Nats for suggesting earthquake bonds, eh

We'd best be careful not to get Collins' goat,
in case we end up with a fatty lipid...

a veritable 'dairy air'
for Collins to sing
(out her derriere?)

Loco Motive Breath
fits the shuffling madness,
of the all time loser, too

Her Iron Lady
is rusting in the heat
and heading off the tracks...

Farmer Joe…

to give us hope :)

Greens weren't offering the right numbers at least one of those times. Labour didn't handle the negotiations honourably from what I heard, but hopefully we're all past that.

I get why Labour won't do a…

He probably has – likely – it may not be sinking in.

He's aged a bit since the 2011 version, although some of the themes are the same. The exchange at 9:45 onwards ("let the devil take the hindmost", etc) is fascinating.

Peters says that 32 of 38 National MPs approached him to challenge Jim…

the Australian Labor Party is a good case study in this politics of avoidance. Its membership base has all but collapsed, its primary vote is at a historic low and its constitution is corporatist and constraining.…

That's a big call. It might be better during that term, but my feeling is that it would implode by the next election, punishing both parties severely. In National's case, that would be a big hooray,…

I don't think they can, given their positioning for quite some time as going with Labour. And I don't think the membership would go with it. But...

tbh I…

How would you know for sure until you made the offer? It's worth a try.

to act as if the rejection is a grand insult is, frankly, precious.…

Presumably you're talking about major bloggers rather than commentators, but I said it month ago. But saying it "all along" wouldn't be that rational, if you…

In Bryce Edwards' live chat with Winston yesterday, Winston said what he felt about the Greens and it wasn't bad .

Charles Lees: The Red/Green Coalition in Germany: Politics, Personalities and Power: Manchester: Palgrave: 2000.

Werner Reutter: Germany on the Road to Normalcy: Politics and Policies of the Red/Green Federal Government: 1998-2002 Manchester: Palgrave: 2004

Franko Zelko and Caroline Brinkman: Green Parties: Reflections…

I must also admit that frankly, I find remarks from some political commentators that a Labour/Green coalition would be unstable or unworkable either…

Greens members actually get to decide. Can't see it.

This is why I think if Labour won't play nice with the Greens they need to consider going with National. A National-Greens government would be far better for the country than a National-NZF govt. I think…

Looking far too likely. Wouldn't last 3 years, but who needs any more pain?

And the Greens' current…

Ah, those were the days. Labour landed hit after hit on that hapless excuse for a government. The contrast with 2014 is…

'Heresy" would be too strong a word, but I'd like everyone (including the…

He seems to think we might care more about what he thinks his interviewees think, than letting them tell us themselves …

He needs to get out of his own way,
rather than constantly hunting the ‘soundbite’ he wants…

…or maybe…

No – instead there were bizarre fantasies that Colin Craig was just going to be handed one of the safest National seats in the country, with the cheerful acquiescence of Murray…

Given the branding of the political party involved, it would be a red wedding. And I'm not over that yet.

But call Peters what you want (and there's many things I'd like to) his centrality to any hopes to…

I went for "wedding guest" in the original post, but yeah.

Which makes the analogy a not very good one. Asking John Key "what do you plan to do about Colin Craig" is not the same…

No, I am aware of that thanks. But National doesn't have a large potential coalition partner who just asked them to campaign with them so I used the Conservatives as an…

Oh, who's being a wee bit precious…

What their mistake is is that the Greens will make up a much bigger portion of the…

Also:

"I'm the leader of the Labour Party and my job is to maximize the Labour Party vote," he said ...

But Labour would quite possibly be working with other parties as well "and whatever the coalition arrangements are, they need to be…

Nah, I'm not, but "corrupt", "spineless", "lost at sea", "flailing", "owned by the unions" et al did seem unhelpful to…

From Audrey Young in the Herald

Mr Cunliffe told the Herald…

In your honour I counted 42 comments, 12 critical of Labour of which I think 7 count as attacks. "Bad mistake on Labour's part", for example, is critical but not an attack, while "they…

That’s possible. But (I think) the sensible thing for Labour to do in this situation would be to say to…

Oh, come on. There are about a…

Russel, it seems you have picked the worst of the few comments that attack Labour and highlighted it. Which is interesting given your normal position on media angles. Especially since we're talking about Facebook here, where the…

Good conspiracy theory, but isn’t it vastly more likely that Jones is…

Important to clarify that this set of people represents the general public, ie. is quite different…

Yes, and we've seen a lot of that. It seems to go hand in hand with falling polls. Oddly, rather than saying "polls go up when we announce definite policy,…

And listening to Russel Norman this morning on National Radio, he didn't appear…

Green Party political positioning is set by the branch delegates at the AGM in June. But it’s highly likely that we will do something similar to last election with a strong preference to work towards a Green Labour government. So we thought it would be…

I recall reading that the Greens come up with their policy first on that, and agreed to co-launch with Labour. If there was a blanket endorsement I doubt it was one-way.

Hope that can still happen in some way.

I just don't think…

So any agreement on the proposal to Labour would have had to be ratified by branch delegates at the AGM.

But any post-election deal would be negotiated by a team…

The Greens have done poorly in the South Auckland electorates for the same reason National does poorly; ongoing loyalty to Labour, weak electorate organisations,…

who's that?

or they could refer to the sort of polling Danyl linked…

Yes. Their Wellington Central campaign manager (a volunteer position). But I also accept that politics is a business in which numbers count, and Labour would be ill-advised to take a…

*from Southland
obviously!
;- )

The Greens have now said that remaining on the cross-benches is an option for them, which I think they're obliged to do in the circumstances.

And Labour has made a complete pig's arse out of making it clear that the decision was that of the leadership team rather…

But…

So would I — and it's funny how many folks on my Twitter have assumed it's someone in the Greens, and that the whole thing was just a…

I find this unconvincing, but for the reason that I think it does not bolster Labour's own support within its potential voter pool.…

This is the thing I would like to know. Who leaked it? Because that does seem like an act of bad faith.

Or be able to clearly articulate your points of agreement, which should only be as difficult as you choose…

Except you do see a senior Labour MP attacking the Greens on a routine basis.

Did you call for a formal campaign coalition before today?. Given the view that it’s apparently an absolute no-brainer, I’m trying…

Fixed – for once, I noticed it before the edit window closed. :)

which was formed after the 1922 general election. After. It's not the same thing.

Simple statement of fact there, but it's existed (in various forms) through every Australian federal election since. Not always peacefully,…

Yeah, and I think this is worth pointing out, but would require some homework from the press: This kind…

Did you call for a formal campaign coalition before today?. Given the view that…

Your URL’s missing, but I assume you mean the Liberal-National coalition, which was formed after the 1922 general election. After. It's not the same thing.

You're probably right, but since Winston's already started laying down quarter-arsed bottom lines like this it's a perfectly legitimate question to ask. Not that Winston's bromantic partners in the Press Gallery will bother.

Helen and Jim buried the hatchet in the lead up to 1999, which is not the same thing as a formal agreement.

I fear you will be disappointed on both counts.

People can speculate all they like, but I think it would be better if MSM didn't and actually report how it is.

Sure. And you don't see Labour and the Greens attacking each other this year either. But Labour and the Alliance didn't campaign together in…

Yeah, thanks for that Sofie. I'd like both Key and Cunliffe to decide what they think about…

And isn't the whole "tea Party" thang that Key introduced with Act ,just the sort of thing…

That's an interesting point about the polling at the time of the NZ Power announcement, but it's worth bearing in mind that it was followed not long after by polls so bad that Labour changed its…

No – and I'd suggest you learn something from history where Labour and the Alliance very publicly buried the hatchet elsewhere than in each other's backs. Of…

There are 2 ways for Labour to increase its share of the vote, without cannibalising the Greens vote:…

my guess is that most Labour voters who are sympathetic to the Greens – and according to the Colmar Brunton poll that’s about 70% of Labour voters – don’t feel the need to switch because ever…

Yes, usually. And like I said, that's what everyone was doing just last week. I know…

I think that’s part of Gordon Campbell’s thesis too.
Ah, I see I/S has made that link.

Such an alliance might have galvanised Cunliffe’s campaign, currently…

I watched 3 Degrees last night and is it just me or is Rachel Smalley emulating Guyon with a bit of Paddy thrown in? Sad...

Good point.

Sadly conjecture gussied up as 'fact' seems to be…