Politics

The wealth in the Caymans is staggering. Its hedge funds alone looks after $2.3tn (£1.4tn), according to figures last year, and its GDP places it as the world's 12th richest jurisdiction, despite a population of only 51,900.

When your entire economy is predicated on providing a way to allow citizens and businesses in other countries to evade taxes I can't imagine how you'd have the sheer effrontery to ask one of those countries to bail you out.

Let us remember that tax havens like the Caymens are not, as in the case of places like Ireland, offering favourable tax regimes to attract businesses; rather, they provide a way for people who wish to enjoy the amenities of first world nations—healthcare, policing, roading, and so on—while avoiding coughing up for any of those social institutions and services they avail themselves of. They are, in effect, parasite nations.

So good on the UK for telling them to fuck off.

"I fear you will have no choice but to consider new taxes – perhaps payroll and property taxes," Bryant wrote to Bush. "I understand, of course, that in so doing you will want to consider carefully the implications for Caymans' economy, including the financial services industry."

Ha-ha, indeed.

…rusty metal. I can’t help but wonder if the monarchy of Tonga is having its very own Marie Antoinette moment.

Pity the National PartyNew Zealand Herald couldn’t be arsed reporting on what the candidates really think before polling day.

I am reminded of Peter Dunne’s rise as the media’s annointed “Mr Sensible”, followed the same organs of opinion suddenly noticing he’d merged with the half of the Christian Coalition that were too extreme in some their views for Graham Capill’s taste.

Watching Winston Peters give what is likely to be his farewell speech I was struck, hard by a thought: what a waste.

Peters is an excellent speaker. His speech touched on many of the highlights of his career and the causes he cares about; the elderly, corruption. Later, especially on Maori TV, voices were added in support of something he didn’t really mention; as the first Maori MP elected to hold a general roll seat, and the first post-War Maori MP to exist outside the Labour/Ratana alliance, he had a certain inspirational quality as a Maori footing it outside that environment.

If that had been the summary of his career I could feel a real sense of sadness at his passing out of public life.

Instead, I find it tragic. Because Peters, expert politician, pioneer, battler against corruption, and so on, had his fatal flaw: he couldn’t stop supping with racists. The years he spent calling to the anti-immigrant and anti-Asian sentiments that poison some parts of our society were despicable. They helped make the country a less welcoming place for many of my fellow citizens, and he helped legitimise the some of the basest elements of politics. It will forever tarnish his name, and rightly so; it could all have been so different, and that’s the tragedy of it.

I would like to miss Winston. But I cannot.

I hear that Labour are considering Phil Goff as the new leader of the parliamentary party. I guess that seals 6 years for the National-ACT coalition, then.

…so perhaps I don’t understand the finer points of running for political office in New Zealand; I cannot help but feel that a guy who was promoted as a potential minister of finance at the last election on the basis of his expertise in high-finance ought, perhaps, to leave that in the background now that he’s trying to be PM.

Because, honestly, I cannot understand how now is the time to be bragging about a background in the part of the financial industry most associated with the current economic woes.

Unless, I suppose, you’re admiring the wisdom of making a quick $60 million and then bailing for a nice secure public service job before the shit hits the fan.

And it’s true, he’s spent his entire life shuffling from one low-paying government job to another. Well, except those years he spent in prison. Typical! And between you and me, he’s not very articulate. Oh, he may have some street smarts, but he’s not what you call an educated man. He freely admits he’s ignorant about the economy. And apparently the only thing his white running mate knows how to do is crank out one baby after another. And now of course, her teenage daughter is pregnant out of wedlock. Because she learns it at home! But that doesn’t mean we should assume all white people are like that, just because so many of them are. I believe there is hope. I believe even the …stupidest, greediest, laziest whites can break the cycle of dependence like this November when we finally move George Bush out of public housing.

Sometimes, just sometimes, political comedy just works.

So, let me get this straight. When people in New Zealand complain they are having trouble affording food, the collective response from farmers is, “We aren’t a charity, let the market decide.”

So why am I expect to sympathise when potential workers say the same thing.

Exploited, my arse.

You may or may not be familiar with the term, which is used by some economists and social scientists to describe (amongst other things) what happens when people are able to vote themselves wealth at the expense of previous or future generations (for example, John Key’s suggestion to Baby Boomers that they can have tax cuts and massive infrastructure spending by voting up debt for their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to pay off; the last time we did this was the Muldoon years).

This rather madcap proposal would appear to take the notion to whole new heights; “give Granny your kidney, son, and you can have a sweetie.”

…with less than a year to go to an election you announce that your preferred strategy for the future of New Zealand is wage cuts for all!