Tuesday, November 07, 2006

New Labour

So Labour is going to deliberately court a section of the Christian vote...perhaps I'm cynical...no perhaps about it! But anyway, despite some rather odd comments in the article, it seems like the left is slowly getting itself organised to respond to the sometimes orchestrated politicisation of the Christian right. With that in mind I thought I would assist the Labour party by completing a partial segmentation of this unexploited market:

  • The new Labour Christians will be quite different from some Christians on the issue of killing people. Instead of being pro war and pro death penalty with a homicidal commitment to being anti abortion, the new Labour Christians will be anti killing people;
  • They will drink only fair trade coffee (usually freshly roasted by some trendy local coffee roaster) but not if its from Esquires (low quality coffee like the exploitation of coffee bean growers all over the world, leaves a bad taste in the mouth);
  • They will have a commitment to the environment and might even vote green if it weren't for the dope-smoking fine print;
  • They might read Brian McLaren, Robb Bell, Doug Pagitt et al but probably won't be Tim La Haye or Frank Peretti fans;
  • They will support the welfare state as a concept where it seeks to ameliorate the effects of social inequity, but will want to see some long term efforts to reduce the cycle of poverty;
  • They probably won't attend Destiny Church;
  • They will give to Tear Fund but probably not World Vision;
  • They will happily overlook Helen Clark's commitment to a radical policy of social re engineering, because thats still the price of voting Labour;
  • They will likely be refugees from pentecostalism, although not exclusively;
  • They will love Bono...

Alright so its not exhaustive but its a start. Have I missed any key attributes that should be immediately communicated to the Labour PR spin doctors?

15 comments:

BJ said...

But won't you feel more loved now?

BJ said...

Which is what I was attempting to say in a roundabout kind of way: is there really a pool of Christian voters that Labour could actually get who don't already vote that way? Cos the price of the vote is still a social engineering one and for those to whom that matters, they've already taken their vote elsewhere!

Kelso said...

The question is.... who would God vote for?

Probably Winston!

BJ said...

That is not the question and you know it...its certainly not the answer...

The question of influencing a party's direction is a different take on this...some may well be influenced by that opportunity, but again I'd bet they're already Labour voters...whatever it means to be a [insert party] voter

Rhett said...

I've swung. National all the way.

I'm sick of no-can-do attitudes, resource consents, nanny-government and the same old faces.

I'm glad that the climate change issue is gathering political traction with parties because it means I can leave some room for other issues when choosing.

So National. That's right. God's party of choice.

BJ said...

So does that make it a FULL circle these past 18 months?! ;)

I see your logic: you'd rather vote for a party led by a man who commits adultery rather than for a party led by a woman who simply legislates for adultery?

Mostly joking...

Rhett said...

Hook line and sinker guys :).

BJ said...

Hmmm, I suppose you do love Bono...

Rhett said...

That is true. I'm actually see-sawing between National and United Future. The Greens are still in the picture though.

"it's a tired, predictable way to vote and one that sees NZ see-sawing far too often ;o)"

Hmmm, but haven't you voted for three different parties in three different elections?

Booya!!!

Rhett said...

I'm not doing that and you know it! In fact I never voted Labour and probably never will.

Suddenly I feel that I'm made of straw... AND... IM... BURNING!!!!

Arrrgghhhh!!!

BJ said...

Um, Frank might now say: hook, line and sinker?

Rhett said...

Hey this is the most comments you'ver ever had BJ. We should do this more often.

BJ said...

I have had 20 comments before...I'm important...what are you trying to say?

BJ said...

21...22

BJ said...

Hey thats funny, you have the same name as Doug...