90 candles for Labour's cake

DPF reflects that Labour are in a pretty good place at their ninetieth, citing Tony Milne's speech to Canterbury Labour for the 90th celebration.

One interesting thing though is as Tony recounts great Labour moments of the past he can't really point to any of this Government except being in power and not sending troops to Iraq (overlooking she did send some actually). And this is not Tony's fault - Clark will leave behind a legacy of capable control of power, but no vision, no major achievements.

Well, maybe not what you or I or Dave might call achievements (I would hope), but the ninety-year-old Nanny does seem to have brought back and entrenched a culture of entitlement and a miasma of suffocating political correctness, re-established the executive at the centre of political power, and begun to re-establish the Government at the centre of economic power.

On this latter, Terry Hall suggests in The Dominion-Post:

Signs that the Government is becoming increasingly interventionist in business, coupled with its fondness for regulation, are starting to have a severe impact on investment decision-making.

Allied to this is a fear that Labour is reverting to its socialistic roots in trying to re-establish government at the centre of economic power.

These trends aren't being lost on Australians, who have been leading the rush to dump Telecom shares since the Government decided unilaterally to punish the company for not promoting a faster uptake of broadband by forcing it to open its copper wire network to all competitors.

And now, following that 'success':

The Government – in a bid to be seen to be doing something to reinvigorate the economy in its third term – seems to feel it can't lose with talk of its intervening not just in telecommunications, but in the electricity, transport, and roading sectors.

Even with ninety-year-old gums, the Labour Nanny can still help bite the hand that feeds. The headline in the Dom, says it all: 'Ninety and still a Nanny.'

LINKS: Labour's 90th - Kiwiblog (DPF)
All this meddling sets investors on edge - Terry Hall, Dominion-Post
Ninety and still a nanny - Dominion-Post
Cartoon by Richard McGrail, courtesty of 'The Free Radical.'
TAGS: Politics-Labour, Politics-NZ, Cartoon