Brash is gone, well done Nicky

Pleased to see Don Brash resign - even if only half the allegations in Nicky Hagar's book are true he is simply not the kind of person most New Zealanders would want to see running the country.
Perhaps National party President Judy Kirk secretly agrees - it was interesting her press release said she 'supported and respected' Brash' decision to resign. Under normal circumstances one would expect the word 'regret' to be used - but it wasn't. And being 'thanked for your contribution' can act as a euphemism for being fired.

In seeking an injunction in an attempt to prevent his emails being published Brash may as well have picked up a megaphone and shouted 'I have something to hide'.

The fall of Don Brash is a significant setback for the new right in New Zealand. They appear to know they will never be popular enough to be openly elected to implement their policies, so they rely on portraying a reassuring and misleading image of themselves (Labour in 1984, Bolger's 'decent society' in 1990), only to invent an economic crisis after the election and implement the policies they wanted all along.

I must say I find some of the reaction to Hagar's book from the Labour party more than a little opportunistic. Labour spilt a lot of venom at Hagar for his previous book 'Seeds of Distrust', yet because they believe the conclusions of the Hollow Men may suit their political interests some within Labour are heralding the book before they have even read it.

If Hagar ever decided to write a second volume of the Hollow Men I am sure he could find some links between the corporates and the Labour Party Helen and Co would prefer to stay hidden. That said I would expect such a book on the Labour party to be significantly shorter than Hagar's book on National - while the forth Labour government were disgracefully dishonest I doubt the current lot are as bad - or as cynical as Nicky seems to think National have been under Don Brash.