The company you keep…

Who’s to know if David Farrar cares about the company he keeps, one wonders whether he’s more interested in quantity not quality, but he’d have to be feeling a little unnerved by some of the more extreme commentators who lurk around kiwiblog. Recently, some of the less virulent voices have even counseled against challenging the likes of Dad4Justice on the basis that he appears to be in a desperate situation.

So what to do when your growing fame is built on such unstable foundations? The Party surely won’t continue to be party to such an unsavory soirée but then bland debate won’t pay the bills like the rich ravings of the rabid right? Surely David’s oft-mentioned liberal conscience, not to mention his high ambition, will win out in the end.

Privatisation Debate on Kiwiblog

DPF contributed a reasonably cogent argument why he believes National should remain open to privatising certain state activities and assets.

Unfortunately, the thread that followed was anything but cogent. It was an appalling mess of personal abuse and incoherent babble. A few posters desperately tried to keep things apropos but Redbaiter and his demented accolyte, D4J (fresh back from his latest stint in purgatory for abusing David’s hospitality) heaped ad hominen and inane rant into the proceedings.

David tried to set a reasonable tone when he said:

What I want is a Government which will be open minded about where there is a role for the private sector, and make decisions based on empirical evidence and analysis.

This was classic DPF. True to his soft-liberal underbelly, DPF is not totally ideologically-driven. But he needs to float this particular argument because National’s privatisation by stealth is hemorrhaging votes.

The problem David and National have is this kind of moderate ‘we want to be open - but we’re not entirely wedded to the idea‘ perspective may have been valid in the eighties when the government was pretty much indiscriminately selling-off Crown assets and enterprises - but I am not sure it has much traction now.

The debate has subsided because there’s not a lot to talk about. All of the obvious things that could have been privatised were privatised and what remains really are core functions. There might be some room around the margins for discussion and there remains a strong opportunity for public-private partnering as a way to delivery high-performance outcomes. But as for mainstream privatisation…forget about it.

National wants to soften the privatisation disquiet. Accordingly, it’s getting all its mouthpieces (like DPF) out and about to make soothing noises.

But this is where Kiwiblog fails as National propaganda: Kiwiblog is frequented by some pretty brainless ideologues for whom nothing short of selling everything bar army and police is a good idea. The net result is that National and DPF’s ambition to set out some reasonable and soothing noises about privatisation (it will be evidence based not ideological!) is drowned out by the idiots. Visit Kiwiblog and you come away with the distinct impression that National will sell you goddamned teeth if they were reasonably accessible.

How long will Kiwiblog survive a Nat Govt?

How long will Kiwiblog survive a National-led government?  What would DPF write about? And think of the kiddies!  Without their hysterical Gynephobia to guide them, where will the likes of D4J, Castafiore and the raft of other mentally-juvenile Simians find an outlet for their naked rage? I suppose it’s too early to make a long term forecasts. It’s likely there would be, for a period of about a year, a fertile window for blaming everything that’s gone wrong with the World on the previous  government.  But seriously, that’s likely to ring a little hollow quite quickly - even for DPF’s lazy subscribers.  So, what’s left for Farrar’s blog?  Who knows. My bet is it folds within six months.  But this is all theoretical.  Let’s hope Kiwiblog can long remain an apologist for Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition.