Yesterday, Destiny New Zealand announced that it would shortly deregister, but form a new composite fundamentalist party with Future New Zealand. Furthermore, Gordon Copeland (Future New Zealand) and DNZ's Richard Lewis would be co-leaders. What are we to make of this? The Future New Zealand half of the equation was unprepared for the announcement, even if several fundamentalist and conservative Catholic 'church leaders' had decided it was to go ahead last month. However, according to the New Zealand Herald, Copeland was caught unawares when Tamaki and Lewis decided to jump the gun, so he had to call an affirmative press conference in Wellington to acknowledge his role. Neither the New Zealand Herald or TVNZ's Breakfast host Paul Henry seemed anything other than amused by the event. How significant will this be to us? Not very, according to Massey University's veteran religious scholar Peter Lineham, given that MMP solidified some time ago, and that there is no real niche for an overt fundamentalist party. In the past, both the defunct Christian Heritage Party and current Future New Zealand only got into Parliament because Frank Grover and Gordon Copeland defected from the Alliance and United Future respectively. While Taito Phillip Field could serve as aconstituency seat anchor that would only apply in the contingency that he was acquitted of charges that he currently faces. Even then, he'd have to win Mangere off Labour in 2008. Christian Coalition II? Given yesterday, its strategic planning capabilities don't look terribly impressive. It has no name as yet, so let's call it the Blob, for now. It squats on the political landscape, and may end up hoovering up social conservative votes while failing to secure parliamentary representation. One suspects so. Craig Young - 19th September 2007