Morrison quits over ‘bickering’

Press, 7 March 1989, Page 6

Morrison quits over ‘bickering’

PA Auckland The former leader of the Democratic Party, Mr Neil Morrison, has quit, saying he wants no more of the party’s “squabbling and bickering.” The one-term M.P., aged 51, said last evening he resigned about two months ago but revealed his decision after a new row between the Democrats and Bruce Beetham’s breakaway Social Credit Party. Mr Morrison defeated Mr Beetham in a Democrat leadership contest in 1986, ending Mr Beetham’s 14year rule as party chief. At the time Mr Morrison was the member of Parliament for Pakuranga, the seat he held from 1984 until 1987. His decision ends about 27 years of political activity, first with the Social Credit Political League and most recently with the Democrats. Last evening he said he was “thoroughly fed up with the bickering, the back-biting and the lack of esprit de corps” between the two parties. He said third parties faced huge obstacles in winning seats in Parliament under the electoral system. By fighting among themselves they made the job impossible. Mr Morrison, who first stood for Parliament in 1972, said he was active in Social Credit politics eight years before Mr Beetham and some 15 years before Garry Knapp, the Democrat leader. But “petty personality disputes” meant he was simply wasting his efforts.