Colin James – Page 129

Fixing up globalisation

Colin James’s unpublished article on Singer”s “One World”

Globalisation is here to stay, so it is time we set it in some ethical standards. So says Peter Singer in a new book to get your synapses in working order for your return to the office.

Singer is an Australian philosopher with a high-prestige “bioethics” university post at Princeton in the United States. His easy-to-read new book, One World: the ethics of globalisation*, is a challenging adjunct to Philippe Legrain’s brilliant Open World: The Truth about Globalisation, reviewed here on November 6. read more

Unfinished business: who owns our elections?

Each year leaves unfinished business. One for this democracy this New Year’s Eve is our elections. Who owns them?

In June the Prime Minister called a snap election four months before the parliamentary term was up.

She did that ostensibly because the Alliance had broken up, Opposition points of order on the Alliance’s legitimacy in the coalition were obstructing the government’s legislative programme and Parliament was being demeaned. read more

A man who turned luck into good management

The political jibe of the year was surely Winston Peters’ “black widow spider” taunt to Helen Clark as she savaged her political mate, the Green party, in the election campaign.

The snap election had got mired in the bog of genetic modification, the Greens’ cause celebre. Labour’s support fell by a quarter. Clark blew her top. The Greens got eaten. read more

The fine line between a free lunch and forelock-tugging

Stephen Franks is no forelock-tugger. Brought up a working class lad in Taihape, ACT’s brainiest MP is a verbal brawler.

So why is Franks battling alongside the cultural cringe brigade to keep the British Privy Council as our final court of appeal?

Come to think of it, why is young National rising star Simon Power also in Alf’s imperial platoon? Aren’t the young, even young fogies of the middle-right, supposed nowadays to want this nation standing tall on its own feet? read more

No 4 today: but can Clark get to the top slot?

Today Helen Clark passes a milestone. She becomes the fourth longest-serving Labour Prime Minister, matching Sir Walter Nash’s exact three years in the job from 1957-60.

Clark has already lasted longer as Prime Minister than Mike Moore and Sir Geoffrey Palmer (1980s) and Sir Wallace Rowling and Norman Kirk (1970s). Another 16 months and she will go past the sainted Michael Joseph Savage (four years, three months and 22 days from 1935). This time two years hence she will be about to gazump David Lange (five years, nine days from 1984). read more

A little bit of decentralisation

Regional and central networks are to be developed to improve coordination of government services, State Services Minister Trevor Mallard announced yesterday.

This is one of a range of initiatives, under a Review of the Centre programme, to get public and other state services working more effectively and responding better to the public. Mallard was reporting progress on the review’s recommendations from a year ago. read more

Warrior Queen or Good Queen Helen?

Colin James on Helen Clark for the Independent for 4 December 2002

Helen Clark kicked off the election campaign this year snarling at the Greens on the steps of Parliament. Later she did a sumptuous official opening in the Aotea Centre to an adoring throng. But the earlier unrehearsed version became the campaign’s abiding image and theme. And it cost votes. read more

Public service under the hammer

Colin James speech to the Institute of Public Administration

I shall start with some politics. It is familiar to you since you live and breathe it or at the very least have to work around it. But it is a useful starting point to set my scene.

The logic of MMP was a sort of two-group system, as Germany has. There the Greens are allied with the Social Democrats and the Free Democrats (who these days occupy a slot akin to ACT’s) are allied to the Christian Democrats. That looked like where our system was heading; a winnowing of small parties until Labour squared off against National, each with an ally or two. read more

A tender shrub in need of water on the roots

The reason the National party is not on the way to oblivion or even minor party status is that its roots go too deep and too wide. With water, fertiliser and judicious nurturing, it will recover. The real question is: what will it recover to?

Start with a simple proposition: that most voters are conservative with a small-c. They don’t want too much change and they don’t want danger. read more

Busy in an incremental sort of way

In mid-February Helen Clark will make the opening speech at a “leadership” conference, the Knowledge Wave’s second shindig. This will be around the same time as her annual Prime Minister’s statement to Parliament. Will they mesh?

The watchword of this government is “incrementalism”. If “leadership” implies boldness, this so far is not the government for that. read more