Winston's way out

Today, in amongst writing 2000 words of high quality philosophical babble on obligation, I have been thinking about what Winston could so to get himself out of trouble this election. Just like the Greeks returning from Troy, there will still be a lot of drama after the election day no matter what happens.

For non-NZ readers: NZ has a proportional voting system, in principle if your party receives 10% of the vote, it receives 10% of the seats in Parliament. Caveats, 1) NZ has a unicameral legislature, 2) half of the seats are still allocated in electorates (voters have two votes, skip if confused) and 3) you need a minimum of 5% to receive representation. Winston Peters's party is sitting about 5% in the polls, and he has a tradition of being a bit of a wild card.

If he just manages to scrape through, I think this will be a bad situation for all involved. Neither Labour nor National will want to deal with him. He's too volitile, he will demand too much. Plus he has few MPs that have been cabinet ministers, so there does not seem to be much beyond Peters.

I think he should position himself tomorrow with the slogan, 'We'll work with the smaller minor party first.' This may seem a counter intuitive move at first, but I think there is a cunning argument behind it. The smaller party is more likely to want to seceed more power to form a government. This is good for Winston. Plus, none of his faithful will be disheartened. This is because both major parties will be able to campaign on the basis that they have a back-up plan. No one will have votes wasted on them.

Plus, it's original. It'll create headlines because it's so far from left field. Therefore, go with the smaller major party Winston. I dare ya.