POWERS OF PERSUASION

It is 85 years since the National Party came into being, fused from two parties. One was the Liberals, a party that had governed from 1891-1912 and had ushered in women’s suffrage, albeit not without some internal opposition. The other was Reform, a farmers’ party with some urban conservative support. Between them, they held power for nearly 45 years, sometimes together, but more often separately. There was, periodically, talk of unification to create a broad church and consolidate the conservative vote in the face of a growing Labour Party. There was, unsurprisingly, some resistance – coalition politics requires relinquishing some power, which seldom comes easily to those attracted to political life.

However, relegation to the Opposition benches in 1935, put there by a global economic crisis and a further splintering of conservative votes through the formation of the Democratic Party by William Goodfellow, meant unification and rebirth as the National Party made good political sense. This decision was eventually rewarded. Although National was defeated in 1938, it went on to hold power for 47 of the 68 years between 1949 and 2017. It is no wonder it has been tagged