Here’s Michael Bassett – former Lange Govt minister on the NZ election in today’s Australian.
National’s caucus gets 24 fresh faces, several of them with substantial track records – diplomats, a top lawyer, a prominent secondary school principal and a medico.
Hard to imagine it’s the Labor Party – at least on this side of the pond.
I love a man who sticks to his roots.
I’m sticking to mine. I don’t believe that trading on the stock exchange is a terribly fabulous way of understanding the complexities of a nation. Worse even than the law.
Keynes described a legal training as a form of brain damage.
Nicholas,
the comment appears to be at the Nationals and your comment is aimed at the ALP.
Is there some sort of symentry I am missing?
Bassett is an excellent political historian up to 1983. After that however he is shrill hack incapable of understanding why anyone might disagree with Roger Douglas. Disappointing.
No ulterior motives Homer. Just threw in something that I thought was funy.
Geoff R, I agree. Reading Bassett it was obvious he’d got that old time religion. It’s sad. My favourite Finance Minister of all time – Peter Walsh – joining the Lavoisier Society is similarly sad. Not that I’m a big fan of the envirinmental movement. They irritate me too. But imagine:
1. orienting your major activities in life according to how you can get at those who annoy you most. And
2. thereby managing to align yourself with obscurantism and denialism of a possibly disastrous kind.
Now that is sad.
One reason why the Hawke government was so good was the quality of the party at that time.
They had more small businessmen than the liberals.
Yur comment could be equally made to the liberal party.
If the rumours are true then ssome new talent is coming in next election.
I remember talking with Walshie and he wanted to know why one would take environmental measures even though one was sceptical of the arguments at present.
I said what if were wrong.
my reading of the information now is that we were.