Another Three Years of Goff

It gives me no pleasure at all to say “told you so” with regard to my prediction last Wednesday.

I said it would take a miracle, and unfortunately the miracle wasn’t forthcoming, so Aucklanders are stuck with another three years of numpty Goofy Goff.

Listening to him on radio thanking Aucklanders for giving him another three years must surely give all of us cause to wonder how it could have happened, and oh, by the way Goofy, do the numbers – it was still a very small percentage of Aucklanders that actually voted for you.

You would do well to remember that as a proportion of the total population, more people couldn’t be bothered ticking a form for you (or for anybody else either). Call it a win if you like, but it’s a hollow victory for you at best and a tragedy for the city of Auckland at worst.

After failing to deliver on promises and indeed, failing to deliver anything useful to the city in his first term, the man who gave us (in many cases) unmanageable higher rates, a fuel tax and a ban (remember – he lied about that too) on people he doesn’t agree with speaking at City Council–owned venues, has somehow been re-elected.

Perhaps the only positive thing to take out of the election is that he got 30,000 less votes than last time but it’s pretty horrifying to think that he still has a majority that wouldn’t have been beaten by the combined votes cast for Tamihere and Lord combined.

The lesson to be learnt from the fact that, even with a high profile name and a history in politics, Tamihere was unable to make much of an impression, is surely that whoever the next challenger is to be, they will have to start campaigning much sooner and ensure they have a full and competent support team in place.

If Craig Lord is serious about hanging in for another go he needs to start now and make a mark by being an effective “opposition” or “mayor in waiting” immediately.