I’ve never been a supporter of polls nor do I place too much credibility in them these days especially given the grief people get for admitting what they believe in – if it happens not to coincide with what the masses want you to believe in.
Of course, many of us have our very serious doubts about anything that Stuff publishes anyway.
However, pollsters poll and MSM publish them and we can’t ignore them completely. We can’t just bury our heads in the sand.
The Stuffed/YouGov poll released today shows Labour’s party vote at 42% with National at 38%. Despite the dreadful decisions and some of the worst possible public statements ever uttered by MP’s, the Greens are sitting on 8%.
So too is NZ First, which is probably not such a big surprise given that we’ve seen a couple of last-minute interventions from Peters blocking legislation most of us would disagree with. It makes them look half-competent sometimes and I’m expecting to see a few more such pronouncements in the not too distant future.
The poll conducted between 7 and 11 November avoids recent revelations that might influence what people think, but by and large, you’d have to say the whole thing is pretty much what anybody with an eye on politics would have predicted – give or take a few percentage points.
Also worth noting is that they didn’t use “preferred Prime Minister” in the polling but instead asked if those polled had a “favourable or unfavourable” view of the leaders and the parties. In my view a much more sensible way to pose the question.
If you laughed when I wrote that Jacinda Ardern walks on water a few weeks ago, get out your hankies and prepare to weep buckets of tears. At 62% favourable against 27% unfavourable she could walk to her next international engagement – or even maybe beam herself there if miracles are on order.
I won’t say “told you so” but if we’re not realistic about what the majority out there are thinking, we’re destined to keep going down the same pathways and misjudging what will happen.
Poor Simon Bridges isn’t getting it or getting there (wherever there is). 59% unfavourable to 22% favourable – gosh – he’s nearly as unfavourable as Ms Ardern is favourable. And then there’s Peters, marginally behind with 53% unfavourable and 30% favourable.
The bottom line is that if there was an election on the day the poll was taken, Bridges would have been unelectable and the COL would have won by a landslide.
Meanwhile, the National party’s response to this poll shows they’re still deeply in denial saying the numbers are “dramatically different from what we see and are wrong”.
Surely there has to come a point when the Nats move beyond denial to acceptance and that should closely be followed by anger.
Maybe then we’ll get to see the real National party we’ve all been hanging out for since it abandoned its principles many years ago. Don’t hold your breath. It won’t happen under the present executive or political leadership. It really is time for a breakaway group who know and understand what their principles are rather than this pushing the jelly around the bowl and pushing it nowhere.