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Jordan Carter blogs on the reaction from some people to the Herald story speculating he will stand for Parliament in 2008.

It goes without saying that Jordan and I disagree on most policy and political issues. We have very different world views.  We do agree in a few areas of course.

But Jordan is very right when he says he has developed an excellent career outside politics.  Jordan doesn’t exactly discuss all his job offers with me, but I’m well aware he has had numerous offers to work in the Beehive.  I think he has shown great wisdom in building up a private sector career.  I’m also somewhat biased, because I also benefit from the first class work Jordan does for InternetNZ.  His work is highly respected by not just InternetNZ, but also other sector groups, and various Government agencies.

In fact it amazes me how someone who is such a superb policy analyst, can be so wrong on so many policies 🙂

I also have to give Jordan a tick for being consistent and saying he still doesn’t support tax cuts – he realises Labour is doing them out of political necessity rather than conviction. Just as I don’t think anyone really thinks National loves the Cullen Fund or Kiwibank – it’s just an acceptance of the majority view. Politics is about the possible.

It’s a pity there is at times such vehemence against those with opposing views. My favourite nights out are when there is a mixture of lefties and righties – you get great debates, good arguments and oh yeah pretty drunk 🙂

It one of the reasons why I spend a fair bit of time debating issues in the comments, rather than just not participating.  I actually enjoy a good contest of ideas.  I’ve been doing it since 1996 when I discovered Usenet (which is incidentally how I first met Jordan).  It’s also why I started reading blogs and commenting on them before I decided to set up my own.