Monday 4 August 2008

Bad English

If there's one thing NZ's so called free market reformers were guilty of, it was lying about what they were going to do.  This mendacity has infected free market reforms for a generation -- infecting them with the idea that somehow free market reforms like privatisation and deregulation are somehow unsound, unsafe or immoral.  After all, if so called supporters of free market reforms are too ashamed to argue for them openly, the impression is given that there's something to be ashamed about.

Bill English is not a free market reformer.  But he is a liar, as this recording indicates..  [Transcript here.]

UPDATE 1:  He's a liar three times in one weekend.
"We will not borrow to fund tax cuts," he told journalists two weeks ago -- now he wants us to believe the borrowing is just to fund infrastructure. Yeah right.
"We won't sell Kiwibank in the first term" -- now he tells listeners he will, but "not now."
Then he claims he did not remember the conversation linked above, and then refers to "the part of the tape they did not play..." -- this being the tape of the conversation he did not recall...

UPDATE 2:  Liberty Scott comments on National's fundamental problem.

1 comment:

Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling said...

I really don't know about this, after the "Free Market" reforms of 1984 Labour got voted back in 1987, presumably under the slogan of keeping the reforms going (though I'm too young to remember exactly).

And didn't ACT poll quite well early on when they were far more po-freedom than now?

To my mind, I don't think that my fellow New Zealanders are statists deep down in their subconscius, when presented with a well argued alternative for freedom I don't think they'll balk, the problem is that, basically, National suck and are too scared to argue for freedom. Why they are honestly escapes me.