Playing Sergeant Pepper – The B-Side

In the interests of fairness and balance I thought it only proper to include a retrospective squiz at the parties and groups who ended up on the debit side of the political ledger of 15 years ago. Re-reading these assessments of “The Losers” from my “Politics” column in The Independent of 12 December 2001, I am moved to wonder whether a more suitable musical reference than Sergeant Pepper might be Joni Mitchell’s “The Circle Game”

We can’t return, we can only look
Behind from where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game.

THE NATIONAL PARTY

It has been a frustrating and surprisingly ineffective year for National. In spite of leadership changes at both the organisational and parliamentary levels, the party continues to flounder in the choppy seas of New Zealand politics.

And it’s not as if there has been a lack of targets for National’s guns. Ongoing problems in the health and education sectors cried out for concentrated salvoes of Opposition fire, but a lack of developed policy prevented it from scoring any notable hits. On the contrary, Gerry Brownlee’s repudiation of the NCEA – a National Party initiative! – did more damage to his own fleet than the Government’s.

Even the controversial decision to scrap the RNZAF’s combat arm was not enough to rouse the National Party to the required levels of political ferocity. An issue that begged for speeches of Churchillian prescience, inspired little more than foot-stamping petulance and the tired rhetoric of yesterday’s wars.

The Air New Zealand collapse, likewise, should have afforded the National Party almost unlimited opportunities for sinking the Labour-Alliance Coalition’s credibility. Admittedly, the terrorist attacks of 11 September – by completely overshadowing the Air New Zealand story – allowed the Government to get themselves out of range before any serious damage was done. Nevertheless, the number of direct hits on this issue were far fewer than many observers anticipated.

The War Against Terrorism itself held out enormous promise for a conservative party – especially given the anti-American history of many on the Government’s front bench. But, as with Air New Zealand, the Opposition’s opening volleys caused surprisingly little damage. Helen Clark was given time to reconfigure her forces in an unequivocally pro-American formation, and – once again – the moment was lost.

Exactly why the National Party has been so woefully ineffective in such a “target-rich environment” is difficult to pin-point. It may simply be a case of ideological exhaustion. The neo-liberal ideas that inspired a decade-and-a-half of unprecedented change no longer resonate with more than about a third of the electorate, and it is clear that neither Jenny Shipley nor Bill English have any clear alternative to Helen Clark’s doggedly centrist style.

The unfolding pattern of conservative political campaigning overseas suggests that a sharp rightward turn is imminent. But whether or not New Zealand is ready for the sort of xenophobia and racism that got John Howard re-elected across the Tasman remains to be seen.

THE BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE

Perhaps the saddest sight of the past twelve months – for those of a right-wing perspective – has been the steady decline in the influence of the Business Roundtable.

To be sure, the publications keep coming out, and the speeches to Rotary continue to be made, but in the new environment created by the Labour-Alliance Government, it’s just not the same.

Where once a phalanx of ideologically motivated MPs stood waiting to set their spears against anything identified by the Business Roundtable as a barrier to New Zealand’s economic and social progress – which included just about everything – today only ACT’s true believers stand ready to answer the call.

Even National has succumbed to the new centrism – at least officially. Although, who knows, with a comfortable National-ACT majority, all the old policies might rise – vampire like – from their graves to join their dark master in the ruins of the BRT’s proud tower.

THE ALLIANCE

It’s not only the right of New Zealand politics that has had a hard time in 2001. Looking across to the other side of the ideological spectrum, no one could conclude that the Alliance has had anything other than a truly disastrous year.

While the Greens disported themselves like participants in a San Francisco love-in, Jim Anderton’s impatient apparatchiks paced up and down their parliamentary offices like caged lions. “When was Jim going to make his move?”, they growled, “When is the Alliance going to take a stand and differentiate itself from Labour?”

The answer, when it came, was even more shocking than last year’s “Get-a-life!”

“Total support” for the United States’ bombing of Afghanistan was too much for the young lions, who, led by the biggest cat of them all – Matt McCarten – broke out of their cages and set about mauling the Alliance caucus.

While entertaining, in a Gladiator sort of way, tearing one’s party to pieces on prime-time television is probably not the best strategy for shoring up a vote that’s heading south of the margin of error.

THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT

Damn those B-52s! Just when it looked as though the US Air Force couldn’t NOT hit a civilian hospital if it had a big red cross painted on it, along comes a fleet of aircraft at least ten years older than most of its pilots, which sends the Taliban reeling back from their trenches in utter disarray. Before you know it women are showing their faces, men are cutting their beards, teenagers are listening to music, and children are flying kites. Even worse, after an 8-day meeting in Bonn, the various Afghan factions actually agree on an interim government and an eventual return to democracy. Erstwhile lefty Chris Hitchens summed up the general response of the pro-war scribblers with his immortal headline: “Yah, ha, ha, ha and boo!” to the peaceniks. Personally, I think P.J. O’Rourke said it better when he turned the Beatles on their heads and wrote: “Give war a chance!”