Christopher Marshall Trotter (born 1956) is a political commentator in New Zealand. He is the editor of the occasional ''

Political Review Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

'' magazine.

Biography

Chris Trotter has worked for unions and was on the New Zealand Council (the national council) of the Labour Party. He has contributed to the ''

Independent Financial Review Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independen ...

''. He makes semi-frequent television appearances as a political commentator. Trotter was a member of the Labour Party, but when Labour MP Jim Anderton quit the party, Trotter followed him into the NewLabour Party (NLP). He stood for the party in the electorate and was NLP spokesperson for electoral reform and state services. Trotter is the author of ''No Left Turn'', a political history of New Zealand. Novelist, poet and critic C K Stead described the book as "a dashingly written and persuasive elegy for the Scandinavian-style socialist democracy New Zealand might have been, and at the same time a realistic (though at times appropriately angry) acknowledgement that, given the forces, internal and external, ranged against it, the chances of it happening, and lasting, were never very good." In February 2008, he said that Labour leader and prime minister Helen Clark should stand down before that year's

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

and be replaced by Phil Goff, who he thought may have been Labour's only hope of regaining ground with struggling families. He later recanted, arguing that Goff, who became leader after the 2008 election, should have stood down in his turn before the

2011 New Zealand general election The 2011 New Zealand general election took place on Saturday 26 November 2011 to determine the membership of the 50th New Zealand Parliament. One hundred and twenty-one MPs were elected to the New Zealand House of Representatives, 70 from sing ...

, arguing that David Cunliffe should replace him. In July 2018, Trotter joined the Free Speech Coalition, a group of former politicians, lawyers, journalists, and academics that pursued legal action against the Mayor of Auckland and former Labour leader Phil Goff for denying

Auckland Council Auckland Council ( mi, Te Kaunihera o Tāmaki Makaurau) is the local government council for the Auckland Region in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority that has the responsibilities, duties and powers of a regional council and so is ...

facilities to two Canadian

alt-right The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...

activists Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux. Trotter justified his defense of the two alt-right activists' free speech by arguing that left-wing opponents of the tour lacked the courage to debate the alt-right. By 2021, Trotter was involved with the Coalition, which had relaunched itself as the

New Zealand Free Speech Union The New Zealand Free Speech Union (FSU) is an organisation that advocates for some forms of freedom of speech, though primarily focuses on the promotion of conservative politics. It was formed as the Free Speech Coalition in 2018 and relaunched ...

. The organisation is led by former National Party adviser Jonathan Ayling and claims to be a bipartisan organisation with both right and left-wing members.

Notes and references

External links

Chris Trotter's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trotter, Chris 1956 births Living people New Zealand columnists New Zealand left-wing activists New Zealand Labour Party politicians NewLabour Party (New Zealand) politicians Unsuccessful candidates in the 1990 New Zealand general election University of Otago alumni