He ran the Labour Party's 2024 campaign that saw Labour land a comparatively small amount of the vote (37%) in exactly the right places to give them a stonking great majority and end 14 years of Tory rule.
It ended badly for McSweeney. It's ending badly for Starmer, and a bloke who never got elected by Britain is going to run the place in a few weeks, theoretically for the next three years.
I tell you this because McSweeney has never spoken before, until now.
What he says is fascinating. He claims the party didn’t prepare properly for power, didn’t think about how the world had changed since they were last in Government, didn't talk about it enough, and didn't plan, and that's why Starmer was such a disaster.
What makes it fascinating for us is:
1) It was Starmer and Labour that Chris Hipkins visited in Liverpool at their conference to get tips.
2) It's Hipkins and Labour, according to former MP and Speaker Trevor Mallard, who ended up at the Featherston book fair telling exactly the same story about his party.
So do we have a theme, or a trait? Are Labour groupings essentially lazy, or blind, or arrogant? Or a combination of all three?
Labour NZ 2017 set a record in working groups because they hadn't prepared for Government. They had nine years to do so. Labour in Britain had 14 years.
Perhaps as interesting is Peter Dunne's latest column in Newsroom where he reports that the recent Labour congress here was well staged but lacked anything new. Subsidies for apprenticeships are worthy, but dull, and reminds voters of the economic mess Labour last got us into.
Do labour movements lack imagination?
The two may be coincidental, but they might not be. Is Labour about simply waiting for the other lot to lose? At their heart, are they not actually up for a bit of hard work and prep?
New Zealand Labour were jettisoned for a calamitous record. British Labour would be on the verge of it if they didn’t have five-year terms.
McSweeney, Mallard, and Dunne all tell a similar story.
If you're a potential Labour supporter here, surely that story is worrying, if not frightening.
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.
I tell you this because McSweeney has never spoken before, until now.
What he says is fascinating. He claims the party didn’t prepare properly for power, didn’t think about how the world had changed since they were last in Government, didn't talk about it enough, and didn't plan, and that's why Starmer was such a disaster.
What makes it fascinating for us is:
1) It was Starmer and Labour that Chris Hipkins visited in Liverpool at their conference to get tips.
2) It's Hipkins and Labour, according to former MP and Speaker Trevor Mallard, who ended up at the Featherston book fair telling exactly the same story about his party.
So do we have a theme, or a trait? Are Labour groupings essentially lazy, or blind, or arrogant? Or a combination of all three?
Labour NZ 2017 set a record in working groups because they hadn't prepared for Government. They had nine years to do so. Labour in Britain had 14 years.
Perhaps as interesting is Peter Dunne's latest column in Newsroom where he reports that the recent Labour congress here was well staged but lacked anything new. Subsidies for apprenticeships are worthy, but dull, and reminds voters of the economic mess Labour last got us into.
Do labour movements lack imagination?
The two may be coincidental, but they might not be. Is Labour about simply waiting for the other lot to lose? At their heart, are they not actually up for a bit of hard work and prep?
New Zealand Labour were jettisoned for a calamitous record. British Labour would be on the verge of it if they didn’t have five-year terms.
McSweeney, Mallard, and Dunne all tell a similar story.
If you're a potential Labour supporter here, surely that story is worrying, if not frightening.
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.
3 comments:
Labour doesn’t?
There is little point in labour engaging in any “planning” as their strategy is always the same. Tax & borrow more to fund whatever harebrained scheme is on their desk.
I wish it wasn’t so, but that is the extent of their “thinking”
They are the party of people who can’t count good for the people who can’t count good. Hence all the promises of “free” stuff
They are a ruination on our fair shores
Mike, I'm not sure that any Labour supporters are worried, let alone frightened, by the prospect of their party coming to power. And that's because they're typically not planners or managers themselves, but merely redistributors of wealth. Many seek refuge in the sanctuaries of universities, trade unions and the bureaucracy where they're largely free from accountability. And those who do venture out into the private sector tend to be lacking in skills or education, woke, or perpetual employees, who are unlikely to ever lead an enterprise or found a dynasty. They've never run a cake stall, let alone a country. Little wonder that centre-left governments spend fortunes on consultants - planning and preparation is simply not their forte.
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