Kiwi-born former British MP Bryan Gould believes New Zealanders are living in a fool's paradise with the Government keeping the country afloat by borrowing and selling assets.
'It sounds such an off-the-wall way to run a country that even the Left can't believe it,” he says. 'The country has been running at a deficit for decades and no one challenges it, including the Opposition.”
Bryan, who is coming to Tauranga on Sunday to join Nicky Hager, the author of 'Dirty Politics', in a Tauranga Arts Festival talk, still believes that government, whichever party might be in power, remains our best defence against powerful corporations which are putting democracy under threat.
'Increasingly, people are aware that major decisions are being made not by government but by international corporations and I think that's why there is less faith in democracy than there used to be. These corporations – about half of them are IT companies – are much more powerful than our government and impact far more on our lives.”
Now retired to the shores of Ohiwa Harbour, Bryan left New Zealand in 1962 as a Rhodes Scholar. In Britain he was a law lecturer at Oxford University and a television journalist, as well as twice being elected a British Labour MP. After he lost a bid for the Labour Party leadership in 1992, Bryan returned to New Zealand as vice-chancellor of Waikato University, a position he held for 10 years.
He has produced several books about politics and economics and is writing a pamphlet for the Fabian Society about the disarray of the political Left.
'About 30 or 40 years ago the old nostrums of dealing with a slow economy – such as printing more money – no longer worked in the face of a sharp loss of manufacturing competiveness to Asia. All people did was spend their money on goods from other countries which created balance of payment problems.
'This opened the way for neo-liberal policies and we have been labouring under the burden ever since. The Left is now so terrified at being charged with poorly managing the economy – which isn't true but easy to say – that they say nothing.
'Until the Left throws off the shackles, there's not a great future for these parties. But I'm an optimist and I believe change is coming.”
Bryan Gould and Nicky Hager appear on Sunday, November 1 at 11.30am at the Pacific Crystal Palace on The Strand. Tickets $15 (day pass $45) from Baycourt or at the door.
