So yesterday, I got my hands on one of the Conservatives pamphlets that are being used in Christchurch East. I know I shouldn’t spend so much time on these crazy people, but they’re just so damn funny. At least three people responded to my tweet by asking whether the guy on the left was Bashir Al-Assad (it’s the candidate, Leighton Baker, but he might well appreciate being compared to a hard-line religious crackpot). My main reason for tweeting the picture was to ask whether they had got some new stock photos for their flyers. In the general election two years ago, someone pointed out that this was the case with their advertising. It turns out that some of them aren’t even new:

Conservative party 2011

Grunt to rodzina, whatever that means:

As The Egonomist pointed out, these Conservative Party followers are all over the internet:

Unlike in 2011, when they at least bothered to pretend that they had some non-white members, this time they’ve gone with the “it’s all white here” vision for the East – which is sure to appeal to the large Maori, Pacific Island and Chinese populations in the electorate.

Eric Crampton took a picture of one of the other stupid Conservative billboards doing the rounds:

As he pointed out in his tweet, it’s a misleading set-up. Another academic? None of the main contenders are academics; Poto Williams works in the community sector, whilst Doocey is in health management. There is another, more bizarre variation on this theme, which has the legs of three people, all clad in suit trousers, and then (presumably) Leighton Baker’s legs, in shorts and steel cap boots – and asks which legs you’d rather vote for?

Obviously, I think the Conservatives are a joke, but worryingly, they are a joke with a lot of money and not much sense. They will be a real threat at the general election next year.