New and old

Span is back, and has a roundup of information and gossip on Matt McCarten's new left-wing party. The key fact is that, despite all the talk, the party has completely failed to eventuate, and given that parties had to be registered with the Electoral Commission by the end of February in order to get broadcasting funding, it is now probably too late. Which might not be a bad thing. While the launch of a new party on the left might excite people and get them out to vote (in the same way the launch of the NLP did), there's already a perfectly serviceable (if a little old and battered) electoral vehicle there: the Alliance. Unfortunately, it has a lower profile than Brian Tamaki at the moment (despite similar polling), which means that I'm not holding out too much hope of their returning to Parliament.