Missing the mainstream

Last week, National kicked off its pre-election campaign by appealing to "mainstream New Zealand" and arguing that the government had abandoned them by pandering to minorities with its legislation on prostitution, civil unions, and banning smoking in bars. But this attempt to use the politics of division seems to have already run into trouble, with a Herald poll showing that actually, we quite like those measures, thankyou:

It asked voters whether they were happy or unhappy with the "way the law allowing civil unions is working".

Forty-six per cent said they were happy and and 35.7 per cent said they were unhappy. A further 18.1 per cent said they didn't know or refused to comment.

Asked if they were "happy or unhappy with how the decriminalisation of prostitution is working", 39 per cent said they were happy and 34.6 unhappy.

A large 26.4 per cent were undecided or refused comment.

But the real success was on the question of smoking, with an overwhelming 75% supporting the government's initiatives in that area. I guess people really don't want lung cancer with their night out...

The poll also showed that only 5% of voters ranked "moral issues" as their top priority in the election, suggesting that National's focus on this area is misplaced. And it seems they're aware of it:

Asked for a comment from National on the poll results, Dr Brash's office said the issues were about conscience votes and the party didn't have a view or, therefore, a spokesman on them.

So, having made the "mainstream" a central issue of his campaign, Don Brash suddenly doesn't want to talk about it. And the reason is obvious: if there is a mainstream, he has missed it.