Editorial: Ratana link is not what it once was  Last updated
05:00 27/01/2014  Relevant offers    OPINION: So the politicians
have made their annual pilgrimage to Ratana and shown off their
wares. Where the Maori vote will end at this year's election,
however, is hard to tell. The river is full of conflicting
currents.  Prime Minister John Key made a strong case that Maori
fortunes had improved under National, but this is not a popular
argument. Not even the Maori Party can make it safely. As Dr
Pita Sharples told a reporter, the party is now trying to put
some distance between it and National. Dr Sharples, who freely
admits that he is a good friend of Mr Key's, knows that the link
with National is slowly killing his party.  The only question
now is: how many seats will the Maori Party lose this year? The
party has lost the main reason for its being, which was the
repeal Labour's foreshore and seabed legislation. It has not
really found another central cause to replace it. It is losing
its two most distinguis