What the Dickens is the Green Party up to?

Tony Hancock was a brilliant, if flawed, comedian. In his personal life and in the eponymous character he portrayed, he was constantly trying to improve himself. For example, in a TV episode of Hancock, written for him by the gifted Alan Galton and Ray Simpson, he decides to improve his mind by reading the classics. He gets as far as the first line of Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. That’s enough for Tony. He throws away the book, complaining that if he (Dickens) couldn’t make up his mind, why should he (Hancock) bother?

I thought of that line this week when I was watching the Green Party leadership debacle. Like many of you I was going to call on Metiria Turei to resign, and in my case use Fryday to do it. Then she did, so that Fryday went out the door. But then something else occurred to me and that is where Hancock’s complaint came to mind. Turei resigned as co-leader of the Green Party. Why did the party need two leaders—couldn’t they make up their mind?

Of course, they could.

The reason they had two leaders, it seems to me, is they wanted to portray the right gender and race balance: male and female, Maori and Pakeha. Now they wind up with just a middle-aged white male—that must be particularly galling for The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand. But they are stuck with it and him, until the election at least.

But what about the principle of two leaders (for whatever reason)? How do you feel about it? Me? I feel it condescending, particularly if it is for the reason stated above. I can understand a rugby team having two captains—one to control the forwards and a second to handle the backs. But a political party? Was Metiria there to control the Maoris and James Shaw the Pakehas? Of course not. Was it to pander to the Maori and the Pakeha votes? Possibly. But that doesn’t make a lot of sense, either—other parties do that much better. In fact, some specialise in it. So, we return to the core rationale for co-leadership—portrayal balance. Well, if that’s what they want. But, it all seems a bit silly to me. Then again, so does their party.

In closing, I am reminded of a quote of another favourite author, Oscar Wilde: "To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness." The Green Party lost one, because Metiria was careless. Ultimately that may lead to the party’s misfortune and perhaps even the loss of the other.