In today's NZ Herald Roger Douglas takes Herald columnist John Armstrong to task for his desription of the Douglas policy proposals as "hard Right".
One expects Helen Clark or Michael Cullen to describe conventional economic thinking as irrelevant "hard right" ideology. That sort of deception is their stock-in-trade.
But for John Armstrong to claim that what I said last Thursday was to "spell out his 'hard-right' agenda for New Zealand's economic salvation" is not only nonsense, but demonstrates how successful Helen Clark has been in labelling anyone who has an alternative policy as being "hard right".
To call what I said "hard right" is hugely ignorant.
He then goes on to explain each of his policies and why they are not "hard right". The Hive welcomed the Douglas proposals last week as they would work to boost productivity. We are not hard right either, indeed we see ourselves as pretty much middle of the road....
You should read the full article, but we will just share this on education
What's "hard right" about adopting the education system of Helen Clark's socialist heroes, Sweden? That's broadly what Act is advocating.
The great irony there is that Helen Clark and Dr Cullen are behind the times even by socialist standards. The Swedish education system hasn't been hard-left socialist since 1992. That year, the Swedes introduced what has always been Act policy - where every child gets a scholarship to take to the school of their choice. This puts the power in the hands of individual teachers and parents, not the state, and not the teachers' unions.
