National Party a centre-right dinosaur

The problem with the National Party is it is a broad church, covering the socially conservative MP for Pakuranga Simeon Brown and the almost libertarian Paul Goldsmith. Between these two gentlemen is a wide variety of perspectives, with most MPs and members having no clear ideology at all.

National was organised in 1936 to combat the rising success of the Labour Party. The relatively progressive Liberal Party and the conservative Reform Party combined forces to forestall what they saw as the common enemy. National governments have included the de-regulating postwar administration of Sidney Holland and the interventionist Robert Muldoon.

National has never had an underlying belief system, even if a few of its members occasionally stumble across an economic text book. They are committed to keeping Labour out of power but unsure what to do when they’re in office.

The latest leadership carnival highlights how ideologically bankrupt the party has become. There is a desire for a ‘‘generational change’’, which is meaningless and as far as I can tell none of the candidates would know who John Stuart Mill is, much less have read him, and would be unable to articulate the difference between Keynes and Friedman, pre-supposing they even knew who they were.

Amy Adams has proved a competent minister but has never exposed a clear ideology and Simon Bridges most significant achievement has been yelling at John Campbell.

Judith Collins claims in a recent interview that you do not leave a meeting with her without knowing what she thinks, but I’ve struggled to find anything that indicates an ideology other than a firm belief in ‘‘strong leadership’’. Great.

Banning smoking in prisons and destroying the property of boy racers implies that Collins is an old-school conservative but we are reading the tea leaves rather than her manifesto.

She did bring in private prisons, which gets her a small tick from me, but it is small beer in what is an otherwise empty brewery.

Despite their recent high polling, National is a relic and it should divide into its constitute parts. A fractured centre-right collection of parties competing in the market place of ideas is what MMP demands and is the best way to combat the unrelenting ideology of an ever-expanding welfare state espoused by the current government.

National is a beast whose time has past. To paraphrase Cromwell addressing the Rump parliament;

‘‘You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!’’

Curtain rises on National leader drama p13