The front page of the New Zealand Herald this morning honours the memory of George Bernard Shaw. Unable, it seems, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilisation, it offers us a long, loving description of Chris Carter’s pink shopping bike and many photos of Shane Jones’ banana seat.
You want a Labour government scandal? Here’s a scandal. In the first decade of the new millennium, New Zealanders pretended their houses had become worth twice as much as they were, and borrowed 100 billion to make it true. Now they owe that much to the world’s banks, and the debt is a great albatross around our necks. Our kids will have to find twice as much money to buy a house as they would have ten years ago, but their income will be little more than it would have been 10 years earlier.
If you want to talk about lack of control in a cabinet, that’s where to point your keyboard. Let us trust that this brave new government which valiantly ignores public opinion and cleaves to sound policy will quickly fix the mess.
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And that’s all from me. You may have noticed the gap between posts getting longer. My work needs more of my time, and will do for a while yet. I plan to do this again, somewhere, some time. If you want to stay in touch, you’ll find me on Twitter as @davidslack. I thank Russell for giving me this platform; it’s been a great ride, I’ve made some marvellous acquaintances through it, and along the way I’ve been finding my own voice. Some days I like it, sometimes I think I still prefer to hear the client's one. So long.