A long time ago there was a 6-episode serial of Dr Who called The Green Death. It terrified me as a child. The story is set in the Welsh mining village of Llanfairfach. The Doctor discovers that the mine is full of giant maggots and fluorescent, putrescent green slime. Deadly green slime that is lethal if touched, because the green death infection not so gradually turns its victims into fluorescent, putrescent green slime themselves. Ironically, the serial had an environmentalist theme. It turns out the slime has been produced by chemical waste pumped from the nearby plant of a company called Global Chemicals. What a great name for an evil capitalist corporation!

Yes, you can see where I’m going with this. Today’s Green Death is the environmentalist movement and, in particular, its local incarnation, the Green Party of New Zealand. Today’s putrescent green slime is the propaganda piece on a billboard I drive past on my way to work, pictured below. It exhorts us to party vote Green “for a richer New Zealand”.

Now, I’m a great fan of juxtaposition. I thought this post was pretty funny. But juxtaposition isn’t always funny.

Yes, that’s right. The Green Party is going to take money from the productive – those who actually create wealth and who create jobs – and employ the unproductive and unemployable to create – ostensibly – a richer New Zealand. Anyone with an ounce of sense can see that it’s not going work. The Green Party, if they had their way, would condemn us all to a poorer New Zealand.