New National: Same Old Policy
by Hewligan on 31-07-2007 10:20
Oh lookee, Work for the Dole has a new name.
Now, I've said before that I actually quite like John Key and Bill English - which is true. Unfortunately, I just don't like the party they're in, and this is really an example of why.
I really don't like the way that so many people try to portray the members of the party they don't support as somehow stupid or evil. You know what? Most of the people sitting in parliament are reasonably smart people who genuinely care about the country. Unfortunately, a lot of them are wrong.
Which of them are wrong is not as obvious as you think it is.
The problem is that, for the most part, where there is an answer that is clearly correct, they pretty much all agree. The stuff that they don't agree on is, ultimately, a matter of opinion. Yes, certainly, someone (and in some cases, quite possibly everyone) is wrong - but there's distinctly some doubt about who. That's why we have, you know, debates and elections and stuff.
However, in this case, National have presented us with a policy that was a miserable failure when they were last in government. It's not like their previous work-for-the-dole scheme was some sort of near-miss, where with a little bit of tweaking they could fix up the problems. It was a complete fucking disaster.
So what would make them think that giving it a different name and trying again would be a good idea?