50 Shades of Grey

50 shades of grey covered the heads of the hall full of seniors, from snow white, to silver, to grizzled grey, and everything in between.  It was standing room only for the latecomers as we gathered at the Grey Power Horowhenua meeting to listen to the Rt Hon Winston Peters.  I was lucky to find a seat, and Robin, along with many others, perched on tables around the perimeter of the hall.   An excited buzz filled the hall as we waited for the guest speaker to arrive.

I’ve never been particularly political, but that’s not to say I don’t exercise my democratic right and vote at each election.  After all, women fought long and hard in order to gain the vote.  Winston Peters arrived, and the meeting got underway.  He started by saying that business men do no make good politicians, and democracy is not a business.  He said all the right things, decrying the government for the upcoming asset sales, and for allowing foreign interests to buy our land.  After all, he reasoned, other countries do not sell their land to all comers, so why do we allow it?  Why indeed – he has a good point there.  He commented  that New Zealand manufacturing is at an all time low, and lack of jobs is  one of our country’s biggest problems.  And why,  he asked, is the government issuing temporary work visas for supermarket workers at a time of record high unemployment?

And Winston had the whole audience in the palm of his hand.  He certainly has pulling power, and the oldies loved him.  After his  speech he took questions from the floor, and being the consummate politician that he is, skilfully answered them all.  He left the hall with the words, “Make up your own minds in the upcoming elections, you don’t have to take it anymore”.  In other words, make your vote count.  He took the time to meet with members of the public, shake hands, and gracefully accept their good wishes.

Good on you, Winston.  It was the first time we had seen him “live”, in fact, this was the first political meeting we have attended.    It was a very interesting afternoon, indeed.

Winston Peters shaking hands after his speech