The winner—six times

Press, 16 July 1977, Page 15

The winner—six times

Paddy Blanchfield has had a straight run through six elections, and only once has his majority dropped below 2000 votes. The main difficulty with his electorate has been in travelling to and from it, and in reaching the more remote comers. The West Coast is the most attenuated of the general electorates, and this has not been materially changed by the

> recent boundary revision. 1 Sometimes merely ' travelling to and from ' Wellington takes two days • of waiting, so that the ! much-publicised “long , week-end” of members of Parliament is cut in half. I His questions in Parliament have always been electorate-directed — and > he has averaged 100 ques- > tions a year over long I periods. 1 He recognises that the s West Coast has changed

greatly from being a solid , Labour stronghold. 1 There are other aspects. 1 He believes, for instance, : that had he been a member ■ of the Cabinet he might r have lost Westland. “A ■ Cabinet Minister cannot be in his electorate often ■ enough to please his 1 people.” He believes that ' this is demonstrated by the experiences of the late ( Messrs T. P. Shand and C. I F. Skinner.

“Effective membership of an electorate like this requires much personal contact,” Mr Blanchfield said.

He does not believe that the standard of conduct in the House is deteriorating. “There have always been barb-throwers,” he said.

He does not claim to have any enemies in the House, and numbers some of his friends on the “other side.”