Anti-Racism Conference Walkout

Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. UN General Secretary, Ban Ki-moon found himself between the pro-Israel lobby and the pro-Palestine lobby this week. One of the purposes of free speech and open debate is to establish the facts and persuade listeners. By absenting themselves from the United Nations debate on Racism countries such as the USA and New Zealand deprived themselves of a platform to argue their point of view. Yes - there is a risk that in joining the debate we hear things from others that we do not like. But that is the nature of debate. Tolerance and freedom are hallmarks of the liberal ethos and we depart from them at our peril.

The Importance of Social Cohesion

Social cohesion is important not just because it helps make society more stable, more productive and less violent but because it helps all citizens develop positive aspirations for themselves and their families.
Those societies that have a large underclass that is disconnected from the economic mainstream tend to exhibit a greater range of social and economic problems such as crime, racial tensions, violence and industrial unrest.
A progressive income tax, a strong and responsive public health service and high quality public education service are all foundational to a socially cohesive nation. Most mainstream political parties have now come to recognise this. Parties on the Left have long advocated such measures – albeit at times out of a desire to punish the rich. But today some liberal and conservative parties on the centre-right are also choosing to re-incorporate such policies as part of a socially inclusive form of liberal democracy.

Innovative centrist solutions required to combat recession

The tired old policies of keynesian pump-priming of the Old left and severe retrenchment of the Old Right are no longer the solutions we need to combat today's economic woes. Borrow and hope policies cannot be a long term solution to today's crisis. But harsh cuts in social spending mean the most vulnerable are left to fend for themselves when they can least afford it. Perhaps the time has come to defer income tax cuts for the wealthy, for wage restraint for employees, and for significant State investment in infrastructure projects that will be of value to the nation long after the recession. Better roads, improved broadband, and large scale home insulation programmes would be welcome steps in the right direction.

Centrists support Obama

Good to see centrists in the US supporting President Obama's policy programme.
http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/03/25/centrist-dem-group-pledges-support-for-obama/

It will be the debt of us

You cannot spend your way to prosperity. That's a basic economics lesson that most people learned at a young age. Today, however, we have a generation of bankers and politicians who appear to believe that they can borrow their way to boom times and spend their way to success. It simply ain't so. Once the debt-fuelled binge is over the bill will have to be paid. It would be better to pay as we go now than face the prospect of harsh cutbacks later. Ongoing current account deficits have now been joined by a return to government borrowings for operating expenses. In other words we are borrowing to pay the groceries - something New Zealand finally stopped doing in the 1990s. Are we now poised to return to bad habits?