In one of the worst kept secrets to do with the election Shane Jones has confirmed he’s contesting the Northland seat held by National’s Matt King after he defeated Winston Peters last time round. I’m not in the habit of making predictions but in this case I’m going to … Jones will come in third behind Labour’s Willow Jean Prime. Why?
Because Jones is a four time carpetbagging loser, consumed with his own importance and arrogant to a tee … and those are his endearing qualities. But even more telling … he is, by nature, inherently lazy. One might have thought that a List MP determined to win an electorate seat would put in the hard yards over in the years/months before the election … establish an ‘out-of-parliament’ office; hold clinics, hold meetings … after all, he’s funded for it … but not the Jones boy. His plan to win the seat is based around that one monstrous House Party he holds around Waitangi Day to which he invites the great and the good and the not so good and a big bag of gold bequeathed to him by St Jacinda to be used to buy the seat. Won’t work (bit like his cuzzie bros he promised to get off the couch).
He certainly has a profile and it’s one that doesn’t resonate with Northlanders. They know a snake oil merchant when they see one and Jones is the ultimate snake oil merchant (when he’s not viewing porno movies and charging them off to his ministerial credit-card). His standing among female voters in particular rivals that recorded by President Trump in the latest CNN/SSRS poll here Jones is all mouth and no trousers (perish the thought) and his ego is such that come the day after the election he will still be wondering what hit him.
No Minister 
What a wonderful description of the arrogant, pompous pratt Vet. You certainly have a way with words.
Agree, Allan. Good description of a total waste of rations. Finally we might get rid of both Jones and his leader. I must say that I do have time for one NZF minister, Ron Mark, a strange looking man but he has done a good job in getting funding for the RNZAF replacement planes, so good on him. Not easy getting funds for defense from a pack of lefties. Or, dare I say, from the Nats on occasion. But as for the rest – the sooner they are out on their ears the better.
Agree Max,the expenditure on the new Hercules is fantastic and badly needed. As you say this current lot do not put much effort into defense spending and the patrol of our borders. In the late 60's and 70's a P3 Orion was despatched daily to basically do a figure of 8 pattern around NZ looking for those who were illegally fishing in our waters. Unfortunately that was stopped in the early 80's much to the detr4iment of NZ economic zone. In my view patrol's such as that should be reinstated ASAP. Well done to Ron Mark for doing what he has done he deserves praise for his efforts.
How will the new Kaipara ki Mahurangi electorate change Northland?I'm guessing it may be to Labours benefit.
Vet, good on you for making election predictions. 100 days ago National and Act would have been able to form a government, 100 days from now? I still think it is possible. Labour are vulnerable to the thin layer of talent they have. If David Clarke can’t be replaced because there is nobody else you are scraping the bottom of the barrel. National’s front bench is stepping up including your girl. Sure Todd is not matching Ardern but that was never going to happen. You can’t say he is peaking too early. I actually quite like the 5 parties in parliament, has a certain roundness to it Act on the right national center right the the centralist/nationalist party and labour and the greens to the left. Although it would be better if the Māori party replaced Winston. I don’t agree with the work arounds getting a electorate seat and coattailing in another 3or 4 unelectable. Epson might not be safe for Act and the greens could go too. Act and green supporters are similar. They are convinced that their vote should carry more weight than others. Ian
Noel … good question. The start point is that Northland has been a National stronghold since Socreds Vernon Cracknell lost it in 1969 with majorities over Labour that reached as high as 11,381. Mildly interesting is the fact that the last time Jones stood in Northland was in 2008 as the Labour candidate when he was defeated by over 10,000 votes).So you can fairly argue that apart from the aberration of the by-election won by Peters the contest has always been between National and Labour and so it will be this time because, one thing for sure, Jones ain't Peters.A close look at the boundary changes sees Northland picking up votes from the blue fringes of what was Whangarei. Taken as a whole National's (paper) majority looks to have increased by about 500 but that's assuming the BZF vote holds up and I don't think it will.