Hi James Macbeth Dann,

Yes i sympathise with you and your letter.

Undoubtedly you are very sincere and will be a loss to the Labour party if you have to leave.

But if David Cunliffe is does not continue as leader, many many thousands of members and supporters will leave. This is known.

So either way, Labour will lose some members and supporters, but with Cunliffe as leader, Labour will lose far less.

And as for Labour's fortunes "going forward" Grant Robertson will never be Prime Minister of this country. With him as leader, Labour will not be elected into Government. This too is known.

What National MPs seem to miss is govt isn't a business and being good at one will not make you good at the other - if only many voters understood this too

couldn't agree more. the last thing we need is for the country to be run as a business.

business is all and only about making a profit. government should be there to provide services to the people. much like amateur and non-profit organisations, the focus is totally different. sure they need to be prudent in their management of money but profit does not come into it.

i may be just dumb, but i thought taxes were when your money was taken away and you never saw it again.

when your money is taken away and put into your own account, still belongs to you but you can't spend it until later, how is that a tax?

sorry to be so stupid

yes, national has a policy of stealing policies.

i guess that's a reasonable thing if you have no constructive policies of your own and can't think of any.

gives labour a dilemma, either don't announce any policies until the last minute and risk being seen as having nothing to offer, or announce policies early and risk national stealing and implementing them, leaving labour with nothing new.