Editorial: Goodbye United Future ... a bouffant, a bowtie and not much else

Mark Dawson, Editor of Wanganui Chronicle

"All good things must end ..." was a suitably self-deluding farewell served up this week by United Future as it folded into a small, soft ball of inconsequence.

At one time, New Zealand's most airy-fairy political party had eight seats in Parliament but, even at this zenith, it wielded little power if any.

Was it ever anything more than the bouffant and bowtie of Peter Dunne? Dunne gone, it's done and dusted.

The party was based on the twin tenets of family values and Christianity and became a refuge for naive, well-meaning do-gooders who thought they knew what was best for their fellow citizens.

One problem was that every party does family values - including the serious, well-oiled machines that actually get into government. In fact, National and Labour do family values far better than United Future ever could.

The other problem was that religion and politics is an unholy alliance that nations have spent hundreds of years trying to keep apart. Think Henry XVIII and the sacking of the monasteries; the Irish "troubles"; Guy Fawkes ... think Isis.

If you want a well-run country, you keep religion and politics as separate as possible.
Who these days still refers to the Church of England as "the Conservative Party at prayer"?

In the final transmission from United Future HQ on Tuesday we got a scanty list of the party's "achievements".

Some of them would have happened anyway (reform of the Fire Service), and "improving access to cannabis-based medicines" is entirely dubious as this was a move driven by grassroots sufferers.

So the bona fide UF achievements seem to come down to establishing the Families Commission and the Game Animal Council.

The Families Commission lasted 11 years before being transformed into something called Superu which was, itself, disestablished earlier this year.

You will be delighted to know that the Game Animal Council, established 2013, is still going strong. However, its' recent call for "all hunters to kill illegally released Sika deer" did not prove a big enough vote-catcher to keep United Future in the game.