National has selected former ACT MP Stephen Franks as its candidate for Wellington Central. Franks was notable for the particularly noxious and intellectually dishonest stand he took against the Civil Union Act, which included a fairly vile (and fortunately failed) attempt to gut the Human Rights Act and allow employers to sniff into people's sex lives, and for supporting Judith Collins' attempt to deny abortion access to those who need it most. Then again, the National Party shared most of these positions, so he'll fit right in.
No doubt Franks will try and present himself as a "liberal" during the election campaign. He's not - he's just a tawdry panty-sniffing moral authoritarian who thinks everyone else's sex life is his business. The only "freedom" he is interested in is the freedom of the rich to victimise the rest of us. And that is a "freedom" we very much need to control if we are to live our lives in peace.
