I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO'S BEEN THINKING

 A while ago I wrote this post I'VE BEEN THINKING in which I imagined the possibility of a coalition government between National and Labour - a grand coalition if you will.

As both are relatively centrist parties that share maybe 70% ideas on the economy, social welfare, health, education and policing etc. a coalition between these two, leaving out the minor parties who by and large have wacky, extreme and generally unworkable policies in their portfolios, would give us a stable government that could action long-term goals.

Well, I read today that a 'business leader' and billionaire Guy Haddleton is asking National and Labour to form a 'grand coalition' and to cut out the smaller and less reliable parties rather than relying on the smaller, and less reliable parties.

Haddleton argued that National and Labour collectively accounted for 58.6% of the party vote and 78 seats in parliament, making a cross-bloc centrist government numerically possible. I agree with that (probably the only thing I have in common with a billionaire).

Grand coalitions (joining centre-right and centre-left major parties) are common in European countries like Germany but here in New Zealand have only been formed under wartime emergency conditions.  Still, given what the idiot Trump is leaving the world as his legacy and the threatened Russian expansion triggering mobilisation in UK, Poland and the Baltic countries - maybe we have 'wartime emergency conditions' now.