It’s no secret that Labour had a bad week last week; although I don’t think it will hurt them in the polls – which are already dire, Roy Morgan has National 22 points ahead of Labour – the mistake will still cost Labour dearly. Now whenever they try to raise unemployment as a serious issue the government can simply laugh in their faces and bring up Goff’s ‘dole for millionaires’ debacle and deliver more zingers about pixies printing money instead of engaging with the issue – something they really don’t want to do.
In light of that I was interested to see this post from Labour MP Grant Robertston over at Red Alert:
Out in the electorate this morning, the rising tide of anger about the cuts to Adult and Community Education shows no sign of abating . . . I think Anne Tolley will have to do something as the campaign is not going to let up. In the meantime here is an extract from one of the letters I received this week that sums up a lot of the feelings out there.
I have been involved in adult learning as a student on and off for nearly ten years and would like to tell you how much these programmes mean to me. Over the years I have learnt how to make a mosaic, I’ve dyed silk scarves, built pots out of clay, extended my knowledge of French and been taught the skills to run a small business. These courses have enabled me to learn new things and meet lots of people but they also offer me so much more. Although these things may just be considered hobbies, to me they give me a greater sense of self-esteem and a feeling of connection to my community.
Can’t you just see Bill English standing up in the house and sneering about how Labour’s answer to the recession is to borrow money to pay for silk scarf dying classes? Don’t get me wrong, I think adult education is a great thing, and if we were a really rich country with no economic or financial problems then I think people should have access to all the french and scarf-dying classes they want, but they’re also some of the first things I’d cut when things went south: if these things are truly important to people then they’ll pay for them out of their own pocket. I’m generalising here but Robertson represents one of the wealthiest, best educated electorates in the country and I kind of doubt that a constituent of his taking classes to ‘extend their knowledge of French’ is going to be hard up for cash.
Labour won the 2005 election on a platform of extending the welfare state to the middle class and I wonder if they still think that’s the road to success; if so they’re wrong. A narrative is forming around the party that their solution to everything is to borrow more money and fritter it away on trivialities, seen in that light making the case for silk-scarf dying night classes is simply crazy.
That’ll get old pretty quick though; out of touch even. They’ll want to be careful about that.
Comment by Pascal's bookie — July 25, 2009 @ 5:02 pm
Too true PB.
I mean, Labour only got 7 years out of “It’s all National’s fault for wot they did in teh 90′s
Comment by Phil (not Goff) — July 25, 2009 @ 5:17 pm
Yeah, but that line isn’t telling unemployed people, (and their families and friends), that they’re really all millionaires.
Comment by Pascal's bookie — July 25, 2009 @ 5:27 pm
Since Labour are quite prepared to offer on-going examples of complete stupidity via their blog National will be very pleased –
http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/2009/07/25/arta-falls-for-french-kiss-incis-ii/#comments
A senior Labour party MP all to willing to insult well meaning and competent people on the bsais of anonymous sources – who quite clearly are ignorant and vindictive. What a coward.
That pretty much sums up the opportunism that’s taken hold in Labour.
Comment by Neil — July 25, 2009 @ 7:07 pm
“I have been involved in adult learning ….blah blah blah….. a feeling of connection to my community.”
That paragraph of cack just gave me a serious flashback to Judith Tizard’s “I’ve boght a lampshade” speech – hilariously out of touch.
Comment by Exclamation Mark — July 25, 2009 @ 8:09 pm
[...] points out: Can’t you just see Bill English standing up in the house and sneering about how Labour’s [...]
Pingback by Dim-Post on Labour | Kiwiblog — July 27, 2009 @ 12:02 pm
“if these things are truly important to people then they’ll pay for them out of their own pocket”
Welcome to the dark side: your transformation into a libertarian is almost complete, my son.
Comment by Clunking Fist — July 27, 2009 @ 12:48 pm
Danyl- the point the correspondent was making was that she had done a range of courses, from ones that provided mainly ‘social’ benefit through to the ones that had more ‘economic’ benefit. Access to education does have this range of benefits, and as a community we do all reap the rewards of people feeling more connected to their communities and learning new skills. Night classes are often the place that people at the margins of society can get their lives going, including those dealing with or recovering from mental illness. They are the very same people who do not have large amounts of disposable income to spend on the courses.
You are generalising about the wealth of the people in Wgtn Central. For some the costs of doing these courses is a big stretch. Bear in mind people still pay something for the courses, what we are talking about here is the subsidy from the government to make them affordable.
And frankly, if we are talking about the choices we have to make in a recession, I would back continuing to support adult and community education over additional funding for private schools any day.
Comment by Grant — July 27, 2009 @ 4:46 pm
Grant, “And frankly, if we are talking about the choices we have to make in a recession, I would back continuing to support adult and community education over additional funding for private schools any day.”
There is the crux of the biscuit (and it’s not the apostrophe, with respect to F Zappa): While many of us see investment in private schools as investment in the leaders of tomorrow, you’d rather have grandmas icing cakes and tie-dying scarves.
Besides that, community education can still exist without government assistance. What’s wrong with people these days? Why don’t they act like a community any more and organise stuff among themselves? Is it too much dependance on nanny?
Comment by In A Nutshell — July 27, 2009 @ 5:03 pm
NB: Grant, above is Grant Robertson.
You are generalising about the wealth of the people in Wgtn Central. For some the costs of doing these courses is a big stretch.
I am, that’s why I wrote ‘I’m generalising here’ – but that doesn’t escape the fact that Wgtn Central (where I live) is a very wealthy electorate and that the majority of people in that electorate taking classes to ‘extend their french’ are not in dire need of taxpayer assistance.
But my point (which I guess I failed to make) was more about the politics of the debate; the merits of adult education aside, Goff began last week making the case that millionaires should get the dole and you ended it insisting that the state should fund french lessons and silk scarf dying classes. That’s probably not the message that Labour wants to communicate but that’s what the party is projecting.
Comment by danylmc — July 27, 2009 @ 9:24 pm