ACT held a press conference this morning, at which Roger Douglas reminded everyone of why they hate him: he promised to take us straight back to the 80's if elected to Cabinet, with plans to slash public spending, privatise the education and health systems, dump working for families, and (of course) give enormous tax cuts to the rich. Questions on whether MMP would be a problem were airily dismissed by Rodney Hide with a claim that "There are a lot of people in the National Party who agree with what we are saying".
Over on his blog, Colin Espiner responds with the obvious question: will John Key rule out a Cabinet post for Douglas? Key has already says he does not want to run a radical hard-right government; if he means it, he should put his money where his mouth is. Otherwise, the public are perfectly entitled to think that if they vote National, they'll get Rogered - a proposition which is likely to inspire fear and loathing in anyone outside of ACT's band of zealots.
Update: And Key comes to the party:
"If ACT are hell bent on following a radical right-wing agenda and won't fit in with a moderate pragmatic agenda then we can’t work with them. They’re ruling themselves out if that's what they are doing," Key said.Unfortunately, we won't know whether he means it until its too late. The only way to ensure Douglas stays out is to vote for parties which will refuse under any circumstances to work with him.
