Another wee party dreaming

How conservative am I? The answer I got after completely the newly launched Conservative Party questionnaire was not enough for them to want me.

I agreed with a few of the propositions, disagreed with more and like  Zen Tiger  and Lindsay Mitchell I found some difficult to answer. They were either too black and white to fit my views or multi-pronged.

But I won’t bother taking a further look.

A party needs a lot more than a big ego a a few hot-button ideas to succeed.

It has to get at least 500 members and a constitution before it can be registered and then it has to do a lot of work to persuade voters to support it.

Results from the last election show just how difficult it is for the really wee parties: 

Total Votes Counted:	2,356,536*
Party	Party Votes	% Votes	Electorate Seats	List Seats	Total Seats
National Party	1,053,398	44.93	41	17	58
Labour Party	796,880	33.99	21	22	43
Green Party	157,613	6.72	0	9	9
ACT New Zealand	85,496	3.65	1	4	5
Māori Party	55,980	2.39	5	0	5
Jim Anderton’s Progressive	21,241	0.91	1	0	1
United Future	20,497	0.87	1	0	1
New Zealand First Party	95,356	4.07	0	0	0
The Bill and Ben Party	13,016	0.56	0	0	0
Kiwi Party	12,755	0.54	0	0	0
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party	9,515	0.41	0	0	0
New Zealand Pacific Party	8,640	0.37	0	0	0
Family Party	8,176	0.35	0	0	0
Alliance	1,909	0.08	0	0	0
Democrats for Social Credit	1,208	0.05	0	0	0
Libertarianz	1,176	0.05	0	0	0
Workers Party	932	0.04	0	0	0
RAM – Residents Action Movement	465	0.02	0	0	0
The Republic of New Zealand Party	313	0.01	0	0	0
			70	52	122

If you find you’re conservative enough for the party to want you (a score of 10 or more in the quiz) it would pay to look around for another party with views which match yours and has a better chance of getting into parliament.

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