Author: Colin James

Donald Trump got it right: the United States presidential election was rigged.

He got fewer votes than Hillary Clinton but got elected because the system is distorted. We know about that: in 1978 and 1981 Labour got more votes than National but National ruled. MMP fixed that.

Trump was helped also by onerous registration and voting requirements, particularly in Republican-dominated states, which racial minorities and the less-well-off are least likely to meet (though the courts quashed some restrictions). Long waits to vote didn’t help. read more

For seven decades after 1945 United States proclaimed itself the global standard-bearer of democracy — and broadly was. No longer.

Deeds did not always match words. There were nefarious actions in Latin America — undermining the democratic Allende regime in Chile, for example — and at the interface with the Soviet Union — Vietnam, for example. In 2003 it jettisoned international law to invade Iraq, again proclaiming a democratising mission. (Wow!). read more

This is not a great time to be a social democratic party in most rich liberal democracies. Can Labour start to climb out of that fug at its conference this weekend?

Look around. If old-Democrat-elitist Hillary Clinton wins the United States presidency next week, she will do so only because Donald Trump turns off more than she does. Large numbers see Democrats, once the party of social security, as complicit in their 2010s insecurity. read more

A visiting Hong Kong democracy activist and former top public servant had this advice last week: “It is in each country’s interests to be clear about the terms of engagement.”

Anson Chan was talking about engagement with Hong Kong and its domineering master, China, which, she said, under Xi Jinping, is not upholding the 1997 “one-country-two-systems” undertaking when it took over the territory. read more

It’s the third term, for sure. Last week Michael Woodhouse dribbled some policy coolant on a political hotspot: hot immigration numbers. Judith Collins tried the same on police numbers.

Teeming immigration has nicely swelled economic growth statistics, which boost re-election chances in 2017.

But it has also kept wages low in some sectors through liberal issuance of holiday and temporary work visas, has contributed to careering house prices and added to the strain on underfunded health, education and social support services, not least for parents brought in to reunify families. read more

Justin Lester is young, intelligent and gawkily personable — mayor of Wellington against what some thought long odds. What could he do for Labour nationally if he was in Parliament?

Certainly, senior Labour figures drew attention to him through his two council terms.

He, Phil Goff in Auckland and Lianne Dalziel’s easy win in Christchurch and higher Labour-Green numbers on big-city councils have lifted morale a little in a Labour party fearing a fourth term in opposition. read more

Helen Clark doesn’t know when to bow out. That is not a statement about her bid to boss the United Nations. It is about her bossing the Labour party.

Labour needed, she told Radio New Zealand last week, to hold the “centre ground”, as she said she had.

That implies that Andrew Little’s Labour party, shacked up with “left”-ish Greens, has tilted too far “left”. It glosses her failure in 2008 to hold the “centre” against John Key’s National party. read more

John Key declared on The Nation that he would serve out a fourth term if re-elected. That would make him the third-longest-serving Prime Minister.

King Dick Seddon did four and a-bit terms from 1893 to 1906 — 13 years, 41 days.

Farmer Bill Massey did most of four terms, from seven months after the 1911 election to six months before the 1925 one — 12 years, 10 months. (One term was five years.) read more

Bugger the pollsters, Jim Bolger famously said on election night in 1993. The (TVNZ) poll is bogus, Andrew Little grumped last week.

Bolger’s problem was that some opinion polls had given him a bigger margin than voters gave him on election day. Little’s problem is that other numbers feed his poll numbers. read more