Trotter is back

Chris Trotter has a new blog: Bowalley Road. This time, he's trying to be a voice for "Old New Zealand" - a fondly remembered pre-1984 state shorn of its stultifying ignorance and vicious intolerance. One which, despite Trotter's claims of being a more progressive place, overwhelmingly elected National governments (twice despite them not even winning a plurality of votes), and for nine long years gave us our very own authoritarian demon. It's the New Zealand Winston Peters represented - and not a place I ever want to return to. A left-wing vision for modern New Zealand does not lie in this sort of rose-tinted nostalgia; we need to make our own place, a new place which acknowledges modern ideas of tolerance, diversity, and individualism alongside the traditional left-wing vision of equality and freedom for all. Otherwise we're just going to end up like Trotter - the old guy in the retirement home futilely shaking his stick in outrage at the young.