My turn then (obElection post)

Let's look at the good:

All the significant parties have new blood in parliment.
- Caveat - this will only really be useful to NZ as a whole this term if National rotates out some of it's geriatric (likely) front bench before the next election
- Given that the new National MP they interviewed on TV1 was a) very young and b) had an obvious 'handler' with her, I have to wonder if the new blood will actually have any influence.

The Greens continue to grow, if not as much as one would like.
- I'd even be happy to see Act grow from this position at the next election, as long as they take the support from National. The right needs a party to split it's vote up a bit in the same way as the left has Labour/Greens.
- I'm still not sure where the Maori party fits in this equation since they didn't end up holding the balance of power. They do get to be an independant voice this term - let's see what they do with that.

Ding Dong the Winston is Dead
- I'd love to see him leave NZ First to their own devices and see what they can do next election without him, because there are some good MPs in there.
- I'm not holding out much hope of him going quietly.

Helen Clark gets to leave leadership cleanly and hopefully without too much of a media circus around succession politics.

The middling to bad:

Anderton may finally have had it. I'm hoping for a contested Wigram next time.

If Dunne becomes speaker as has been suggested (would be a good move by Key, effectively gagging Peter and not having to sacrifice one of his own), how does that impact his ability to represent his electorate? I see Dunne has rejected speculation that he'll be speaker.

Will ya look at that distortion between NZFirst's share of the party vote & MPs vs Acts share. Something needs to be done about either the threshold or the elected-MP-drags-in-full-share rule - I'd prefer the latter because it means you can still elect a good local MP without getting their dehabiliting party leader as well.

National/Act get to do pretty much what they want for the next 3 years. Fortunately implementation takes longer than legislation so there is hopefully a limit to the 'damage' that can be done.
- I'm optimistic that they will make some changes for the better, but I disagree too much with some of their policies - like law & order.
- Let's see how Key holds up to the pledges he made in his speech about looking after those who can't look after themselves - and how they define those people.
- Here's hoping Act realises the need to continue to be a brand and makes some noise/fights National on some issues rather than playing lapdog. I realise this may only drag things further right, but it will be good for NZ politics.

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Life will go on, and I don't see the difference between a blue & red government affecting me personally very much. So I can afford to wait and see. Again tossing up the idea of registering a No Confidence party for the next election though - that would take time, effort and like-minded individuals - someone remind me in 12 months time.

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I seem to have over-catered somewhat for the drinkies here last night - Oh well. I guess there will be gamers during the week that I can enlist to help dispose of some of the leftover chips & soft-drink.