There's been a fair bit of talk in recent months about what effect our winning the Rugby World Cup would have on November's general election.
The conventional wisdom is that our winning the Cup would be good for National. We would all be deliriously happy and upbeat and would give that nice smiling Mr Key another turn.
I don't wish to make a prediction about what effect a win might have. But I have no doubt that a World Cup victory would be an enormous boost for the country.
Many of you will say that rugby just doesn't matter. But I disagree. For tens of thousands of New Zealanders the fact that our most worshipped sports team hasn't won the World Cup since 1987 is an abiding shame and a tremendous burden for us to keep carrying. A World Cup win would be an enormous thing for this country.
This creates a potential dilemma. If our winning the Cup means the
chances of National winning another term in office increase, would I then be justified as a Labour-supporter in cheering for another rugby team?
So ask yourself this: If, hypothetically you could either have the All Blacks as World Cup champions, or the government of your choice, but not both, which would you choose?
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
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This is just plain evil. Sophie's Choice was a doddle by comparison.
ReplyDeleteHow about neither? Some of us prefer having lots and lots of things to complain about ...
ReplyDeleteHow about the ABs and National win, but then the revelation of a major scandal forces the overturn of both.
ReplyDeleteell you what, the Pike River inquiry is going to blow up in the governments face big time.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't we just do what the USA does and take up a sport nobody else plays - call it Kiwi Rules Rugby or something (maybe ban drop kicks, have more players and mandate sexier kit). Then we'd always win (against nominal opposition from expat Kiwis living in Aus/UK and a few Pacific Island teams where we can poach all the talent).
ReplyDeleteI reckon that might put 4% on annual GDP from always hosting and winning the Kiwi Rugby World Cup.
What a silly question. You get a chance to change the government every three years, but a chance to win the World Cup every four.
ReplyDeletePlus, there are only two teams capable of winning an election, there are five capable of winning a world cup.
I'll take the World Cup, by a couple of lengths
Tell you what, the Pike River inquiry is going to blow up in the governments face big time.
ReplyDelete"Pike River" should be the immediate reply as soon as ACT or any Nat starts talking about deregulation or less regulation. Mind you Labour had nine years to do something about it so they're not exactly guilt free. What's emerging from Greymouth is a disgrace
I couldn't care less about rugby so for me this is a no brainer. In fact I'm rooting for a Tongan win just because it would be pretty funny.
ReplyDeleteTerry, I agree. The Nats will just blame Labour, no matter how bad the Pike River evidence is (and it's sounding pretty bad so far)
ReplyDelete