Roger Douglas' fervour to restart the Revolution immediately brough to mind Talleyrand's comment about the exiled Bourbon of France: "they have learned nothing and forgotten nothing". And it seems I'm not the only one. In their "hive mentality" column in the NBR today, Ben Thomas and David Young make a similar comparison:
Addressing the well-covered Act conference last weekend, list MP Heather Roy said Act should present itself as a "plausible and revolutionary government in exile." It's a strange comment, but one that sums up the place of Sir Roger Douglas in New Zealand political life: a kind of neo-liberal Dalai Lama who hasn't been able to return to his own land, but finds refuge the world over consulting on privatisation programmes and market reform.Ouch!At the very least, Act's band of market liberal visionaries have the air of deposed European monarchs living in small London apartments, wearing traditional uniforms, holding "cabinet" meetings around dining tables and planning for what they see as an inevitable return to the throne.
