Andrew Dickens: The quiet war between David Seymour and Winston Peters

Don’t you hate it when the kids fight.  The quiet war between David Seymour and Winston Peters has kicked up a little lately with both the boys playing games in court to win the hearts of the public.  That's the problem when you’re a minor party, you need to make noise to be noticed.  The big noise for a while has been David Seymour who has taken conversations by the throat with his Treaty Principles Act. Love it or hate it, you're all talking about it which is all a politician wants.  Last week I warned that Winston has been a good boy while he’s held the Deputy Prime Minister job but that’s coming to an end in a few months and he does a swapsie with David Seymour. That will free his hand and you’ll hear much more from him.  That's started, which explains why he’s taken over the railways. He wants to be seen as a saviour and solver.  Seymour and Peters have very differing views of the railways - Winston blames past privatisation's. David wants to privatise 49 per cent of it.  Winston also has a treaty principles strategy. He’s looking to cancel the legislation that already exists that proscribes how the treaty inveigles it’s way into legislation, it’s got a much better chance of success than Seymour's act and referendum but has flown under the radar since the election. That hacks him off.  You’ve got to remember that Winston is an old school conservative and closer to the old socialists that cared about the working class. David Seymour is part of a new conservatism that believes in capitalism, markets and winner takes all.  They’re not naturally compatible. So the next 18 months looks to be increasingly entertaining and that’s a good thing because a contest of ideas is a good thing.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.