Go The "Blue Libs"
David Farrar writes about the newly formed "Blue Libs" section of the National Party.
The "Blue Libs" are the sucessor group to the "Classical Libs" section which I co-founded a couple of years ago....The new "Blue Libs" are being fully supported by the party and caucus, with many MPs actively involved - especially Chris Finlayson and Katherine Rich.
I'm personally really excited by the launch. It's not about turning National into a "liberal party" but recognising National's heritage is both liberal (Seddon) and conservative, and making sure the liberals in National have influence. I am looking forward to policy debates, policy papers, international speakers etc etc. I want the Blue Libs to be one of the major sources of new policy for the next National Government.
This is indeed good news for the centre right. There will now three political groups in NZ, promoting variants of "liberal/libertarian political philosophy-Libertarianz, ACT and some elements of National.
The Libertarianz appeal to the hard core principled libertarian element, a small but intellectually powerful group. The "Blue Libz", I'm guessing will appeal to classic liberals pragmatic enough to want to advance their ideas inside a major political party.
The Libz suffer the disadvantage of no parliamentary representation. The "Blue Libz" must battle the inertia of a large party.
ACT has the twin advantages of having MPs in Parliament, while being small and flexible enough to quickly formulate and promote policies and ideas when needed.
ACT needs to steer a principled yet practical independent course lest we lose our impatient young libertarians to the Libz and our only slightly more patient pragmatists to National's liberal wing.
The "Blue Libs" are the sucessor group to the "Classical Libs" section which I co-founded a couple of years ago....The new "Blue Libs" are being fully supported by the party and caucus, with many MPs actively involved - especially Chris Finlayson and Katherine Rich.
I'm personally really excited by the launch. It's not about turning National into a "liberal party" but recognising National's heritage is both liberal (Seddon) and conservative, and making sure the liberals in National have influence. I am looking forward to policy debates, policy papers, international speakers etc etc. I want the Blue Libs to be one of the major sources of new policy for the next National Government.
This is indeed good news for the centre right. There will now three political groups in NZ, promoting variants of "liberal/libertarian political philosophy-Libertarianz, ACT and some elements of National.
The Libertarianz appeal to the hard core principled libertarian element, a small but intellectually powerful group. The "Blue Libz", I'm guessing will appeal to classic liberals pragmatic enough to want to advance their ideas inside a major political party.
The Libz suffer the disadvantage of no parliamentary representation. The "Blue Libz" must battle the inertia of a large party.
ACT has the twin advantages of having MPs in Parliament, while being small and flexible enough to quickly formulate and promote policies and ideas when needed.
ACT needs to steer a principled yet practical independent course lest we lose our impatient young libertarians to the Libz and our only slightly more patient pragmatists to National's liberal wing.
posted by Trevor Loudon at
8/01/2006 04:44:00 PM
2 Comments:
Blue Libs eh?
I give it 9 months.
Nothing like good vigorous competition, eh! :-)
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