There is some real talent coming into the caucus in November. Jordan thinks and blogs brilliantly.
The job of the centre left is to join those fights together on that foundational principle of equality for all. It is not to pander to worn divides between groups who need to work together.
Easier said than done, of course, but there is no point in pretending that we will end up in a fair country without changing people’s minds on some big calls. My point is: we are stronger as a united left when we are helping each other with our battles against various forms of inequality, rather than sniping against each other.
So while I do enjoy much of what Chris writes, I do sometimes find myself shaking my head. Not necessarily because I have a problem with what he’s written, and certainly not because it is nice to read and gets the blood flowing, but because I wish he would join that bigger fight instead of turning his face to the past.
It wasn’t an accident that Labour won three elections by being in touch with New Zealand as it is and as it will remain: a massively diverse country that can be united around social democratic principles of equality for all.
Labour would never have won in 1999, nor won two further terms, if it had tried to practice a politics built around an imagined backward looking culture war.
I’ve said before how I think we can make sure we are in touch with the country as it is: turning the party outside in and inside out, and really connecting with the communities we claim to represent. Community politics, not focus group politics. That is exactly what we are doing now with the Stop Asset Sales campaign (got a spare $10? buy a sign on the site), and you can expect to see more of it as the year goes on.
