Jane Clifton: thinning the ranks

As National “rejuvenates”, its list of retirees is growing scarily quickly.

The first party conference I ever attended was National’s after its shattering 1984 defeat by David Lange’s Labour Party. In the manner of whistling Dixie, it had commissioned a determinedly jolly theme song whose refrain was “Reeee-jooo-va-NAY-shun”, and I’ve never quite got over the spectacle of so many late-middle-aged men warbling such an unlikely rallying cry. Times have blessedly changed since those days, when the election of “Young People!”, particularly in National, was regarded as a mischievous experiment not to be repeated too often, on the basis of “Look What Happened ...

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