Unforgiven

Phil Goff now admits that Labour made “mistakes.”

“Mr Goff said he wanted to “draw a line under the past”, citing unpopular policies such as those telling people what size shower heads and which lightbulbs they could use.

““We’d stopped listening to what people’s priorities were and seemed to be working on issues they thought were sideshows,” Mr Goff said yesterday.”

And I suspect that that is as close as we are going to get to an apology from some of the excesses and stupidities of the last government. Especially since Goff consistently points to Working for Families (AKA Benefits for the Middle Classes) as an achievement, which seriously stretches the meaning of that particular word. Homepaddock and Scrubone list other failings of Labour that could generate further apologies. Madeleine at M&M suggests that, rather than apologise, Goff could put a few things right. Don’t hold your breath, Madeleine…

Just when you think that Labour may have begun to acknowledge their arrogant treating of the public as a pack of gullible morons, comes this little gem.

“Labour’s tertiary education spokeswoman Maryan Street said today it was no surprise that National would back the proposal to the select committee.

“Ms Street said the select committee would show that compulsory membership of student unions brought many benefits.

“The problem with voluntary membership was that those benefits were not apparent to students attending university for the first time and they may not believe they provided value.”

Firstly there are no additional benefits to compulsory student membership that are not already available to voluntary student unions except one – the “benefit” of unaccountability of the student union executive. This is a benefit most of us can do without. Eldest Macdoctor daughter, who goes to Auckland university, likens the current student executive to several rude portions of human anatomy and would cease to fund the union immediately, if she could.

Street’s last sentence reveals exactly what Labour thinks of students – apparently either the union is too incompetent to to advertise the benefits of membership or students are too stupid to realise how wonderful membership of the union is. Of course, the underlying reason why Labour wish to force students to join a union, is that the executive can then spend their time training for a political career in Labour rather than attending to student needs.

They think we are too stupid to notice that as well.

The leopard does not change his spots and, like the famous Clint Eastwood character, Phil Goff remains unforgiven.

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