The worm Turns - albeit slowly

Policy, Protest and Polls

The recent protest demonstrations seen on New Zealand streets are instructive, not because they are being read as being visible support for the National Party and discontent with the Labour Government but because they reflect the frustrations of interest groups when faced with issues beyond their understanding and instant solution. The Trucking Industry - because it cannot or does not want to understand how the global oil prices are beyond the ability of a single country's government to control and who refuses to recognise the need for all users, especially heavy users, of our roading to pay for necessary maintenance. The Asian Vigilante group - because it expects immediate arrests and police reaction when any crime occurs and, one would argue, a acceptance that all are guilty and deserving of arrest and trial until they prove themselves innocent. ..... a legal belief imported from certain Asian countries like China and Malaysia.

The incomprehension of the issues and concerns coupled with the lack of immediate, short term solutions in the face of problems that require long term, often global, action has allowed the National Party’s Crosby-Textor manufactured silence to be interpreted as possession of policies that will solve all.

The Trucking industry, the Asian Vigilante call group and others need to realise that National under John Key has no more control over the big international global trends than the Governments of Helen Clark, Gordon Brown, George Bush or Kevin Rudd have.

For the Truckies to believe that the costs of running their trucks on New Zealand roads will be reduced because John Key stands, Canute like on the present high tide mark of oil prices and road repair costs, and declares “I believe that big tax cuts are the solution to all social and economic problems so the cost of fuel and that of repairing our roads will now fall below all current costs” is to believe that Frank Baum’s Wizard was the possessor of real magical powers.

For Mr. Low’s Asian Vigilante Group to believe that because John Key stands, Canute like on the present high tide mark of public investment in Policing and social programmes addressing issues like criminal violence, and declares “I believe that big tax cuts are the solution to all social and economic problems so once they are imposed all the social issues you are worried about will go away” is to believe that a simple spell will immediately recreate the society he imagined existed when he migrated here.

Unfortunately for both groups, the Truckies and the Asian Vigilantes, promises of tax cuts, the reduction of present working conditions and silence won’t reduce “road user charges”, fuel prices, rising food prices or improve the quality of the policing of our communities or the provision of social services designed to alleviate current social problems. They will only add to the problems and allow those that are within the control of government to become worse.

A good question that should be thrown at any aspiring Prime Minister who offers a quick fix solution to any issue would be: “ How will an incoming New Zealand Government, under your leadership,act to limit the impact of the international drive to develop and secure bio-fuels by diverting land from the production of food crops into agri-industrial production on the price of food in our shops given that the World Bank estimates this has been the prime cause factor in pushing international food prices up by 75% plus?”

Another good question might be: “ How would increased tax cuts result in better policing and the provision of a well resourced and funded police force in our communities?”

One doubts if any coherent answer would be forth coming.

Empty Words Do Not Substantial Policy Make.

According to Don Watson, an Australian commentator, once words like outcomes, events, accountability and transparency become commonly used in “pol-speak” the audience will come to realise that “most events are managed and those that aren’t possibly should be and, of course, the management will be transparent so that it can reach the agreed outcomes that will meet the requirements of responsible accountability.” So it is no wonder that whenever one is exposed to a John Key soundbite one immediately thinks that he, as an event, is being managd in a “transparently accountable manner” by his political adviser cum manager- Bill English. After all any afternoon spent sitting in the House, watching the debate, one is treated to the sight of the erstwhile pretender to government smirking to the gallery while his deputy stands and fires the bullets during question time and throughout the debates. (At least he doesn’t quite continue the stunned possum approach his predecessor cultivated.)
Of course one should expose the pronouncements of the leader to some sort of analysis for logic and style if one is to be fair to the man but I haven’t heard either Bill or John say anything as profound as:
“The principal function of Government must be to ensure social and economic justice for all families, to protect their physical security and well being in such a way as to assist parents to achieve independent, secure and happy family life. All social reforms must be judged by the standard of whether they assist the family or not. If they assist the family they are good; if they handicap the family they are bad.”
or
“The Welfare State does not imprison people - it sets them free. It does not compel a dreary uniformity - it opens the door to a wide range of richly varied opportunities. It does not sap self reliance - it strengthens confidence by removing fear and insecurity. It is the wide spectrum of education, housing, better cities, economic development, planning; of better house and secure, healthier families. It exists to ensure social justice for all.”
These statements are from a politician who had a strong political and philosophic belief that he could articulate clearly and in an inspirational manner to his audience - an audience that was present and visible to him and with whom he could and did interact. A far cry from the artificial, stage managed and isolated presentations that produce the eight second media massaged sound bites we hear from those who pretend to be aspirational leaders after attempting to don the clothes of greater men.
The problem for the National Party and those who follow the politics of the right is that the last thing they want is a clearly articulated policy and philosophy getting in the way of logic or profundity, or, for that matter getting any where near a living, breathing audience that might dare to interact with their chosen speakers.
The spin doctors will insist that John Key never utter a profound, clearly articulated statement in the quest to present him in the clothes of the ordinary man. ( The disguise he adopted at Waitangi Day with his folky tee shirt, politically sensitive design, and designer (but not too smart ) jeans is an example of spin doctor advice. ) His advisers will tell him that a man who speaks the language of the ordinary man will embody their wisdom, their aspirations. This is an assumption driven by the polls, the focus groups and collective wisdom of campaign bag-men and then accepted by commentators hired by the media who then tell everyone that the speaker is sincere and obviously has much deeper motivations than he really sounds like. These commentators will, instead of asking John Key what his words mean, will tell us what they want the words to mean on his behalf. As a result they take the most inarticulate and vacillating response at face value and elevate it to more than it really is.
The pol-speak of the media managers, the script writers of the Engkeylish sound bites, provide an impoverished language that reflects impoverished thought. Speech that could not reach the heights of that quoted earlier in this blog. For Engkeylish demands that they speak as inarticulately as the vox pop comments that on the spot TV interviewers grab from people emerging from the noise of a blockbuster movie. So it behoves us to constantly scrutinise the statements coming from the pretenders to government and ask: “Yes - BUT what do you really mean? Where is the real policy behind the repetitive mantras and offers of immediate nostrums and panaceas to all the social, economic and poltical isues their poll driven policy programme gives them. The scrutiny will, as the cartoon demonstrates, reveal that the pretender has neither substantial policy or true fitting political clothes.


(the source of the aspirational quotes about the purpose of Government and the function of Social Welfare? Norman Eric Kirk. Labour Prime Minister.)