Forcing Labour's hand

United Future's draconian and barbaric "justice" policy and their expectation that it will be a starting point for future coalition negotiations should drive home the dangers of allowing them to influence policy after the next election. But what can left-wing voters who care about human rights (and want policy grounded in reality rather than fantasy) do about it?

One tactic is simply to tell them: make it clear to Labour that we want them to go left rather than right. But if that fails, we must be prepared to force Labour's hand. And the best way of doing this is to vote for one of the smaller left wing parties.

Current polling suggests a repeat of the 2002 scenario, with Labour having two or three partners with which it can form a government. Voting for the Greens or the Progressive Coalition instead of Labour will not alter the left's overall share of the vote or its chances of forming a government - but it will alter how power is distributed within that government, and may (depending on the relative strengths of the various parties) make a left coalition the only real option. In the 2002 election, a swing of just 1% away from Labour and towards the Greens would have cut United Future out of the running and prevented them from having any influence on policy, without adversely affecting the total voting strength of the eventual coalition. With United Future flexing its fundamentalist muscles, that seems worth aiming for, neh?