Colin Espiner discusses National's recent policy blurts in The Press this morning, and points out a disturbing fact:
Last week we learned more about what National plans to do if it becomes the Government next year than in all the rest of the months of this year put together.Think about that for a minute: this is our major opposition party, which is trying to present itself as a government-in-waiting, and yet for the past two years they have steadfastly refused to tell us anything at all about what they think or what they would actually do if they gain power. This has been part of a deliberate strategy of emptiness, and in light of the reaction to their recent policy outbursts, the reason for it is obvious: because if we knew what they planned, they would never get elected. So National lies and obfuscates and relies on empty slogans about "political correctness" and "bureaucracy gone mad" and "waste", and hopes that no-one will look past the bluster to see the hollowness within.
As I've said before, this isn't how democracy is supposed to work. Implicit in the idea of the public choosing between competing political alternatives is that we must know what the alternatives actually are. By trying to sell us a political pup, National and its hollow men are undermining our democracy.
Espiner is too wedded to the "sports commentary" mode of political reporting to recognise this, and so instead bases his call for National to come clean on pragmatism: deceiving the electorate will result in it being swiftly turned out of office. Fortunately his fellow correspondent Tracy Watkins understands, pointing out that in 1999, Labour was not only open about its policy of higher taxes for the rich - it campaigned on it as well. If National respected us, it would do the same, put its policies to the voters, have the argument and try and convince us. Their refusal to do so so far, and their fear and desperate obfuscation in response to their unintended honesty speak volumes about their true intentions.
