For a bloke who stumbled into office not on his brilliance or a nationwide passion for the Labour Party, but more because the Tories had spent 14 years slowly messing the place up, he turns out to be quite the operator.
He is reforming public health because it's fat and useless. He is trimming welfare because there are too many layabouts.
He has handled Trump as well as anyone, and better than most, both on tariffs and the war.
Now he has rejected that hackneyed old sop of a patriotic "Buy British" campaign in response to America's moves.
Canada hasn’t. They are flat out hating on America, and in some senses, it's working. Tourism is down in America as Canadians go elsewhere. But all the rest of it is anecdotal as they pull American booze off shelves in a massive huff.
So the idea was, like it was here a number of times over the years and like it is currently in Australia as part of their election campaign, you run the flag up a pole, get everyone fizzed up about their country and their heritage and their ability to make stuff and whittle and dig and toil and sweat and the punter, so enamoured with your skills and graft, buys the locally made brilliance.
And we all live happily ever after.
There is value in patriotism and pride in some local stories.
But even in Britain, where a lot of stuff was born or invented, the world has moved on and Starmer knows it.
People buy on either quality or price and sometimes a bit of both.
They don’t buy blindly, they don’t want crap and they won't support their own for the sake of it. If they did Temu would never have been invented.
This whole tariff thing will pass and this Starmer gets. Free trade will survive, if not thrive. Starmer gets it. President Xi gets it.
Good ideas don’t die with the arrival of an economic Neanderthal. They may be paused or dented, but they don’t die.
Land Rover thrives because, yes it's British, but also because it's good, as do Fortnum and Mason and Barbour wax jackets.
Buying local is isolationism. Most of us worked that out a long time ago.
This is no time to regress.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
He has handled Trump as well as anyone, and better than most, both on tariffs and the war.
Now he has rejected that hackneyed old sop of a patriotic "Buy British" campaign in response to America's moves.
Canada hasn’t. They are flat out hating on America, and in some senses, it's working. Tourism is down in America as Canadians go elsewhere. But all the rest of it is anecdotal as they pull American booze off shelves in a massive huff.
So the idea was, like it was here a number of times over the years and like it is currently in Australia as part of their election campaign, you run the flag up a pole, get everyone fizzed up about their country and their heritage and their ability to make stuff and whittle and dig and toil and sweat and the punter, so enamoured with your skills and graft, buys the locally made brilliance.
And we all live happily ever after.
There is value in patriotism and pride in some local stories.
But even in Britain, where a lot of stuff was born or invented, the world has moved on and Starmer knows it.
People buy on either quality or price and sometimes a bit of both.
They don’t buy blindly, they don’t want crap and they won't support their own for the sake of it. If they did Temu would never have been invented.
This whole tariff thing will pass and this Starmer gets. Free trade will survive, if not thrive. Starmer gets it. President Xi gets it.
Good ideas don’t die with the arrival of an economic Neanderthal. They may be paused or dented, but they don’t die.
Land Rover thrives because, yes it's British, but also because it's good, as do Fortnum and Mason and Barbour wax jackets.
Buying local is isolationism. Most of us worked that out a long time ago.
This is no time to regress.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
6 comments:
The term "free trade" is supposed to invoke positive notions, particularly positive emotions. I mean "free" is always good, is it not? Conversely, "isolationism" is meant to have opposite connotations. I mean, who wants to be left out in the cold by themselves?
But beyond these connotations, why is "free trade" a net good, and why is "isolation" a net negative? Few ever explain this, just as Hosking doesn't - it's just taken as read as a first principle.
While it's wrong to speak in absolutes as if you can't have a bit of both and do just fine, "free trade" really entails opening up a global system (necessarily diminishing national sovereignty) wherein capital (and with it labour, through immigration) are moved and reallocated literally at the press of a button - excellent if you are filthy rich and your main concern is finding the best return on your wealth (often an illusory set of numbers in a ledger), not so great if, like most people, you are more or less rooted to the land of your home and rely on employment that can be taken away on a whim.
This is not an "eat the rich" view point I am providing, but it is certainly false that the "free trade good" and "isolationism bad" dialectic we are offered is true in all cases as a first principle.
What happens if the Neanderthal has a greater understanding of what is at stake and comes up with a way to fix it - what then? We’ll all live happily ever after - don’t think so!
Some good insights. Starmer is dealing with Trump as best he can. He needs now to ship all incoming "refugees" back to France on the Channel tunnel train to gay Paree.... as the French are aiding and abetting. I listen now regularly to GBNews [its world news 12 hours ahead of NZ] and not speaking any mori at me.
Land Rover thrives because, yes it's British
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Land Rover is owned by Tata Motors of India. Only Range Rovers are still built in the UK. The other models are made in Slovakia, Brazil, India and China.
Including Temu and free trade in the same breath shows a limited understanding, perhaps the excessoney in the bank helps.
China is no where near having free trade. They are also happy to weaponise it in ways that even Trump doesn't. But they are the good guys?
Anonymous at 11:19am
Yes, I thought the same when I read that. Mike writes a column about the benefits of free trade, and cites a famous "British" car that is no longer even made in Britain, due to offshoring of industries under free trade agreements.
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