Winston's winning ways

Winston Peters is infuriating. I don't like his political manouverings at all, except where his strategies disadvantage those I oppose as well. I wouldn't trust him one iota, should he be in a position to decide the fate of the political party I support, but his recent speech has all the elements of a serious upset for the Government and I'm revelling in it's directness.
In it he says many things and scores many hits - bull's-eyes in fact and ones that will have Mr Key and his strategists scrambling. The Standard has the whole speech and the link is here. I especially liked this section, where Winston confirms my suspicion that he'll play the 'sitting on the cross-benches' card,

" If we have to, and if that is what NZ First decides, we will be pleased to sit on the cross benches guarding the interests of ALL New Zealanders."

  and this, where he makes it clear that he understands and opposes Key's plans to sell our most valuable assets,

"You are being softened up for cuts in social spending in the next Budget.
Every day the Prime Minister and senior cabinet ministers tell the nation how bad things are.
And every day a new figure of ten, fifteen, twenty billion is thrown about as the amount of extra money the government will need.
This is a clear signal that more state assets will be sold than the government is letting on.
Surely someone, somewhere in this government knows the folly of selling state assets.
For example, the state companies that generate electricity are going to be partially privatised.
Now why would anyone of sane mind sell off its only renewable sources of energy.
Make no mistake.
If our power stations are part of a public share float they will end up owned overseas.
Probably by China because China is one of the few countries that are in the black."

I've commented on my old friend Inv2's blog, where he and I enjoy ragging each other but as he so often sends me back here to post at 'home' rather than sully his with my 'revolutionary' comments, I've added that to this post, for the record :-)

If we have to, and if that is what NZ First decides, we will be pleased to sit on the cross benches guarding the interests of ALL New Zealanders."

Tomorrow, when you have put the sad things behind you Inv2, it'll be time to read this speech by Winston Peters and, like so many others on the Right, quake in your boots!
National's in trouble when there are speeches like this one of Winston's out there - people will flock to those ideas.
Holding up a pissy little 'no' sign at the back of the hall when Winston is delivering this kind of thing to the many, many New Zealanders who recognise this message as a true one, will earn Farrar a crack on his thick head with a stick.

March 22, 2011 11:23 AM