The funny thing about Christopher Luxon ruling out the Opportunity Party was I already thought he had.
Or if they hadn't, I assumed they would, so yesterday as I watched came as no surprise.
What possible connection is there between a centre-right coalition that extends out to the NZ First nationalism, to the ACT libertarianism, and the National low tax, classic centrist view of the world, and a party that hasn’t even got the 5% and wants to hand out money to everyone, whether they need it or want it or not?
The Opportunity Party is the darling of the media who are showing either another form of bias previously reserved for Labour and the Greens, or an unhealthy obsession, driven perhaps by boredom and the light relief of a new game in town.
Either way the fact is they have had an astonishing amount of coverage for a group that isn't in Parliament, nor have they produced a poll that gets them there.
In other words, we dabble with unusual amounts of energy in mindless speculation.
Also playing into the party's hands is this absurd idea, although clever from a marketing point of view, that they remain open to talk to anyone interested.
The fact that that isn't realistic doesn’t seem to occur to anyone currently knee-deep in their obsession.
My broad rule of thumb when dealing with anyone showing signs of life post an election is at least three credible polls that have them above, and preferably significantly above, the threshold, which in our system is 5%.
They have no candidate that credibly looks to win a seat so the 5% is their sole route in. And as we have said, there isn't a single poll that has them in that position.
So we are, as was pointed out by the Prime Minister, yet again dabbing in a seemingly never-ending pool of speculation and guess work.
Labour could well work with them because they are desperate to replace the Māori Party and because they like taxing people, which also dovetails in with the Green's view of the world.
This is bad news for Opportunity, who still want you to believe they are centrist when they are no such thing.
There isn't a centre right party in the world who has ever spruiked universal incomes.
So they aren't on 5% and they aren't centrist or anywhere close.
So the Government ruling them out is obvious. It's not a surprise, or a shock, or news.
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