The Conservative Party has just posted out another newsletter to its remaining followers. Why? After Williams versus Craig, what reason is there left? Nothing other than denial, it would seem. What else could explain their stubborn refusal to accept that Colin Craig lost his defamation case against Taxpayers Union head Jordan Williams several months ago, their failure to appoint a permanent replacement, that Colin Craig's antics have probably caused massive loss of party membership and other failures of nerve and judgement? It almost seems as if Colin Craigis a cult leader and his followers cannot dispense with his leadership and display substantive autonomous behaviour without his presence. There appears to have been little proactive branch or policy development over the last year or so and only now are they holding an "annual general meeting" (or "party conference."). There is little else substantive or meaningful in this newsletter. Pious noises are made against initiatives to introduce physician assisted suicide/voluntary euthanasia in New Zealand, while Bob McCoskrie's remarks about family structure and poverty are re-aired to no significant effect. However, the real meaning and purpose of this newsletter becomes fully apparent in its closing spiels from one of its Management Board members, former Kiwi Party parliamentary candidate Leighton Baker: "...Its means of getting its message out there is going to go through a radical makeover as we operate on a tighter budget with fewer resources...the hurdles are bigger than before, the resources fewer..." This suggests that further cash injections from Colin Craig may not be forthcoming. Or it may be subterfuge, and they may receive further such infusions from their former (?) leader as they near election time next year. Below that, from fellow board member Simon Gutschlag, however, there is a request to"tell us you want a conservative voice in New Zealand," according to which the survival of the fundamentalist political party in question is not as clear."We have endured a number of media hits,"he complained, but "the board are still committed but we want to know that the members are still engaged in trying to make New Zealand a better place. To move forward effectively as a board, we need to know that there is still a core of people who still share the same values..." Gutschlag explains that"this is not a desperate last ditch plea because we do not have enough members to remain a registered party." In which case,why make that statement in the first place? Isn't it time that the Electoral Commission investigated Conservative membership to ascertain whether that is, in fact, the case? The Conservative Party is visibly dying. While the defunct Christian Heritage Party had enough common sense to shut down after the Capillgate serial pedophilia scandal back in 2005, it appears that the Conservatives will remain as a metaphorical political counterpart to zombies, groaning and mindlessly swaying over the political landscape unless expedited toward what seems to be an inevitable demise. One thing is for sure- this is no longer any active threat to remaining LGBT political aspirations and legislative reform within New Zealand, no matter what vain steps that its board makes to have it seem 'relevant.' Not Recommended: The Conservative 16 (October/November 2016):http://www. conservativeparty.org.nz/wp- content/uploads/2016/11/The_ Conservative__Issue_16.pdf Craig Young - 28th November 2016