A nice neutral summary

Rod Oram, the SST Business Editor, did a nice neutral summary for voters on the key business issues. He started it with:

Not since 1984 have National and Labour offered so stark a choice. Now, as then, National embodies the conservative forces trying to hold back tides of economic, political, cultural and social change.

Labour, now as then, embodies the modernising forces trying to help New Zealanders use those tides to their advantage to make a more prosperous and secure country in an uncertain world.

Okay so National is out of touch and trying to hold back change, while Labour is working to make NZ a more prosperous country. Extremely balanced.

Rod goes on to also provide a brief summary of the Leader’s speeches (what this has to do with business I do not know). He says how Brash delivered a “a generic tub-thumper that could have come from any centre-right party anywhere in the world” while Clark “gave one of her most passionate performances. There was no mistaking the rich content and context of the speech it was unmistakably, powerfully New Zealand.”

Also never one to let facts get in the way, Rod also says that “Labour’s core membership is not much larger than National’s”. Well I’ve never heard having around 20% as many members described as “not much larger”. Some others would call it minuscule.

I miss the days when the endorsements were done purely as editorials, and not reported as “news”.