It wasn't exactly hard to work out that the Institute was trying to secure votes for the National Party, and intended to mobilise conservative Christians to vote for National, given the construction of the nzvotes.org website last year, but now Nicky Hager has confirmed it. However, I was puzzled that Nicky views Bill English as a 'centrist.' Well, no, not really. Remember, English was Bolger/Shipley era Health Minister and Shipley era Treasurer, and he acted as cheerleader recently for Maxim Institute educational policy booklets, so how middle of the road is he, really? As Nicky himself notes, National and the Institute also see eye to eye over cash endowments for (conservative Christian) private schools, and English is a social conservative. He certainly didn't raise any objections to that policy. However, let us now extrapolate. The Institute has been uncharacteristically quiet since Hager's book appeared, and it may be the case that two more of its staffers are compromised. There are Beltway rumours that there may soon be a Centre for Independent Studies/Maxim Institute merger. It is logical. The Institute would bring (debatable) educational policy 'expertise' to CIS, both organisations support the mixture of social conservatism and centre-right politics, donors would be able to direct a single revenue stream to a consolidated CIS/Maxim. Added to which, CIS has economies of scale, as a transtasman think-tank, that the Institute cannot hope to match if it remains as an independent organisation. Rumour and hearsay? Or the near future? Recommended: http://www.cis.org.au Centre for Independent Studies http://www.maxim.org.nz Maxim Institute Nicky Hager: The Hollow Men: A Study in Political Deception: Nelson: Craig Potton: 2006 Craig Young - 30th November 2006