Strange Dedication

A strange bloke called Steve Baron lives out in East Auckland, a strange and fanatically dedicated bloke. Steve's obsession is the idea of Binding Citizens Initiated Referenda, and on the back of that he has just announced himself as an independent candidate in Pakuranga.

He has been admirably banging on about BCIR for a number of years, and his recent efforts include putting out a book about them, and going on an ansolute rampage at the time of the 2004 local body elections, and putting up small BCIR signs on every single candidate's hoardings. This was funny as firstly, I doubt that any of the candidates running for the Botany Community Board were remotely interested in BCIR, and secondly, the anecdotal evidence was that hardly any punters understood what the bloody hell "BCIR" referred to.

Anyway, he has announced his candidacy in the local paper and it's all pretty predictable - nasty right wing jabs about Maori, beneficiaries, the homosexual community, abortion, and those kniveing recipients of our foreign aid.

Interestingly enough his commitment to holding referenda extends only to conscience votes. Surely if he was truely dedicated to the idea of direct democracy, BCIR would extend to major decisions about tax, asset sales, public spending, and the like - issues that in fact have a far bigger bearing on our economy, society, and people's lives. What an odd co-incidence that Steve's unpopular free-market-right views conveniently fit into his ideal political world in such a way as not to require putting to "the people".

Good luck to him I say. His platform is as poorly thought through as they come, but he is obviously quite earnest, and he'll only suck votes off other rivals on the right.