Month: September 2014

Key has proved himself to be an exceptionally skilled politician, especially when operating with slim majorities. This term will show whether history will also judge him as one of New Zealand’s great Prime Ministers. If he is bold enough in his third term, it might even secure him a fourth term. […]

We do not need big plans and visions and we do not need government to think on our behalf. We need the state to guarantee property rights, enforce contracts and provide a stable set of political and economic institutions. […]

As Scotland votes on independence from the UK today, it would be courageous to speculate on the result. Recent opinion polls have been so tight that the referendum could go either way. But whatever the Scots decide, the implications will be severe — not just for the (still) UK but also for the EU as well. […]

In its better days, the FDP was the only party prepared to challenge this cosy consensus of German feel-good politics and talk about those issues that were not universally popular. The voters obviously did not appreciate such tough talk and have delivered the maximum punishment to the party by voting it out of existence. You can do that with a party but the problems will not go away just because the voters do not like to be reminded of them. […]

Perhaps the occasional Grand Coalition is the price we have to pay for our MMP electoral system. If you want to avoid difficult coalition bargaining and prefer clear parliamentary majorities, then a first-past-the-post system would be better. […]