PM dubbed champion of Marxism

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been depicted as a champion for Marxist ideas in a prestigious British medical journal.

In a November editorial for The Lancet, editor Dr Richard Horton discusses the impact of Marxism on the health sector. He doesn’t call Ardern a Marxist, but suggests that she has opened the door for Marxist ideas to be debated.

“More and more people . . . believe that economies based only on free markets are not necessarily the best means to deliver fairer or healthier societies,” Horton writes.

“New Zealand’s new Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, noted last month that, ‘ When you allow markets to decide the fate of your people . . . that does not serve a country or people well.’ Marxist ideas have re-entered the political debate.”

In a response in Spectator Australia, Carlos D’Abrera addresses Horton’s use of Ardern as a champion for Marxism. “That the millennial Ms Ardern should be considered a ‘goto’ authority on such matters should trouble Kiwis and Marxists alike.”

National health spokesman Jonathan Coleman brought up The Lancet editorial yesterday while asking whether the Government would support a public-private partnership for building Dunedin Hospital.

In ruling out a PPP, Coleman asked if that was why “the world’s oldest medical journal says . . . that, with Jacinda Ardern, Marxist ideas have re-entered the political debate in health?”