Cam Slater: The Peter Principle in the Labour Party

You may have heard of Laurence J Peter’s Peter Principle, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to “a level of respective incompetence”. Nothing epitomises the Peter Principle more than the modern state of political parties and the Labour Party in particular.

With the ascendancy of Chris Hipkins to the prime ministership, we have seen a clear-cut example of the Peter Principle in action. So too with the promotion of lacklustre ministers with a solid record of ordinary performance at best and abject failure at worst. Yet promoted they were.