New Zealand Green Candidate to Run Naked Through the Streets

As I noted earlier, Rodney Hide won the MP seat for Epsom in Saturday's New Zealand election. As a result, the Green Party candidate will have to run naked through the streets:

Green MP Keith Locke is really regretting promising to run naked through the streets of Epsom if Rodney Hide was victorious.

"I'll do it. I have to," Mr Locke said resignedly. "I was so confident, but I've turned out to be wrong and I've got to do it."

He promises to alert the media when it happens "sometime soon", but it wouldn't be in the dead of night. "That wouldn't be in the spirit of the promise."

Already the Newmarket Business Association is promising to "warn the faint-hearted, clear the footpath on Broadway from Two Double Seven to Khyber Pass Rd, ensure there are the necessary officials, and provide a much-needed loincloth", says manager Cameron Brewer.

Mr Hide will be averting his eyes.

"It wasn't my idea. I knew that he would have to do it. I was on track to win the seat, and I couldn't believe that he could be so foolish."

The Greens failed to read the signals coming from voters, he said. "One of the things that amazed me was just how out of touch they were with people in Epsom."

Congratulations, once again, to Rodney Hide.