Hammerer:This thread has gone downhill since the results.
I read the lastest posts looking for some reasonable analysis and found too many less than constructive comments: too much petulance, scapegoating and fuzzy thinking.
I will be interested to see a comprehensive analysis of voting. Post-vote surveys could be indicative of why people voted the way they did. The problem is that if this is highly politicised, as many believe, then many people will respond with whatever serves their political objective rather than telling us why they actually voted the way they did.
I'll expand on that a bit. Changing the flag is a political process.
Let's take an election for example. All the votes are counted and the members are returned to parliament. If there is no clear majority or there is possibility for instability there must be some discussions. Can happen in FPP or MMP. Different parties need to first state positions and then find a way forward.
So, some discussions are actually required. The process we had did open the discussion but that is all it achieved. It did not move forward to a resolution of differences.