Well there are few surprises in the ACT list.
However keeping the 3rd spot open leads to speculation its either Catherine Isaac or Cathy Odgers.
We are glad to see that the very odd Hilary Calvert is toast. But at the end of the day its still a party of old people especially if its Isaac at 3 . Which makes it a party of the past - not of the future. Thats a bugger.
For once the old turks of Act should have looked past what must be their very short dicks and an onanistic view of life - and put some up the candidate food chain who are at least closer to forty than sixty. Sadly its not the case.
It should have been Cactus Kate Cathy Odgers at #3, and there were a few young ones who should have also been given the nod for a place within cooee of the top spot to indicate a willingness to rejeuvenate the ranks.
There are two young men in the middle order but they are both more of the academic ilk than get out and take a risk Alan Gibbs and Bob Jones types and too far down the ranks to have a snowball chance of getting an MP salary.
David Seymour, 28, who is number six on the list and standing in Auckland Central, has just returned from a role as a senior policy analyst at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy in Canada. He is an also an author and rugby coach. Mr Seymour stood for the ACT Party in the 2005 in the Mt Albert electorate.
Stephen Whittington, 25, who is number eight on the list, works in the tax law team of a corporate law firm. He is also a champion debater who has been named as one of the top ten speakers in Australasia and in 2009 was named as the 15th the best speaker in the world. Mr Whittington has worked as an adviser to Sir Roger Douglas in Parliament.
Cactus would have fired up the campaign like none of the others could. They needed her intellectual grasp of what ACT really stands for and the courage and conviction to articulate it so others could see the sense in some of their old party values.
Even though Isaac is much admired for preserving her good looks despite her advancing years - she is just as much an old boiler as Boscowen, Banks, and Doddery old Don.
Sadly they got rid of the only bugger who doesnt fire blanks - Rodney Hide and they must be rueing the day they made that decision.
We reckon ACT will be in the political wilderness post this election - consigned to jumping up and down and uttering outrageous statements in the hope that someone will give them a column inch or two in the local community paper.
And while we were in Auckland it is very evident that ACT is far from a sure thing in Epsom - which they must win to have a shit show of making the political grade.
ACT for relevance? No
ACT for the future - Not a bloody chance.
UPDATE : Whale is absolutely on the button when it comes the skullduggery behind the scenes in ACT.
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