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Open Mike 21/10/2026
5 comments on “Open Mike 21/10/2026”
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The One News/Verian poll results from last night.
Lab 27.0 Gre 16.0 TPM 0.7 =43.7 (seats 56)
Nat 32.0 ACT 11.0 NZF 8.0 =51.0 (seats 60)
Opp 7.0 (seats 8)
Not very good news for the Left. I may be clutching at straws but the Nats polling recently (see Wiki) has been 25.9 29 28.5 28 28 27.6. On the same day as Freshwater had National on 27.6 Verian had them at 32.This has rogue written all over it.
In any event, when the TPM/TTT overhang is taken into account (see link) Opp is in the driving seat where it can choose a Left government 64-60 or a Right government 68-56. Both would be viable.
Bolsonaro Jnr in Brazil's election has made a huge PR own-goal:
'the far-right politician’s decision to attend a primetime television debate against his leftwing opponent, Lula da Silva, with the word “corrupto” [with a square around PT, the initials of Lula's party] handwritten on the palm of his hand has backfired… viewers sarcastically took Bolsonaro’s message as an admission of his own guilt.'
And created a meme: 'Lula supporters… flooded social media with photographs of their own self-descriptions inked on their palms.'
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/20/flavio-bolsonaro-corrupto-viral-meme-brazil-election-runoff
riotgrrrl on reddit/nzpolitics this morning on OP's policy board, beginning with their policy-decision structure:
' 12.1 policy committee mandate
The Policy Committee has sole responsibility for developing the Party’s policies. The board, other officers, and members of the Party are expressly prohibited from interfering with the development of policy by the Policy Committee.
'No grassroots then' says riotgrrrl. And then their info on committee members:
'Q has said publicly that in addition to her, Jessica Hammond [Opportunity's Wellington North candidate (and mikesh's crush)] is also a member of the policy committee. The other two members aren't named publicly due to their professional commitments'
Choke. Is Wong's mum one, then? The trisky wording of their Palestine genocide position, for example, suggests a high-power legal wordsmith. “Senior National Party members can neither confirm nor deny they wrote OP’s 2026 policy”?
The colon: it's a lovely grammatical device.
Note to self: must stop over-using it.
Re: last night's leaders debate.
Lyin' Luxon wins again – 24 lies to Hipkin's 2.5.
According to Paul … the other one.