Sometimes left wingers get things right. When they do they need to be supported before they rush back to doing stupid things again. Colin James highlights a bloody good play on welfare.
Generation-Y Ardern’s role is to recast social assistance policy. She has been pushing the child-centred policy which Labour curiously neglected in the election and has been gathering a group to rethink “welfare”, which she is calling “social security”, thereby reviving the original 1930s notion of reciprocity.
About time someone hammered the idea that welfare came with responsibilities as well as rights.
This idea may not have the low rat cunning of something Russel Norman would come up with but it is a smart play that positions Labour to the right of National on dole bludgers. Traditional working class Labour voters who left Labour because it became too gay and too liberal elite can start thinking about coming back.
