I have always despised people who made their political vote depend on pocket book issues, I mean, the venality of it all, the refusal to be part of civilisation and pay the price of being member of society. As for people who are floating voters between Tory and Labour I have nothing but contempt too.
Since I first was allowed to vote I have moved a bit politically. It's been a long way from supporting the Maoist-inspired party in suburban Antwerp in the late 1970s (because they were a collective of GPs with a social conscience who set up a group practice which refused to take payment from working class people for doctor visits) to the 1980s Trotskyist rabble-rousers trying to get onto Antwerp City Council in very early attempts to keep the fascists out (said fascists are now one of the bigger factions on the Council, but not due to me, cheers).
Living in Thatcher England never succeeded in turning me Tory either, and for the first four years in New Zealand I was not allowed to vote since I was not a permanent resident - but that didn't prevent the state from taxing my income.
But choice in NZ is quite easy, unless you fret about getting a $25 or a $50 tax cut and find that the most challenging political choice in your life.
This year, an old friend has turned up on the Green Party list, and at #6 quite in an electable place. Kevin Hague was one of the first New Zealanders I have met after I immigrated, and good fun and company he and his partner, Ian, are. They used to live on Waiheke Island until Kevin got a job on the West Coast. There is an interview with him on gaynz.com
I'll be happy to assist him make the move to Wellington in October
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