Political & Economic week that was: Is John Key losing interest in politics?

“Events, dear boy, events,” is how former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan responded when asked what had most determined the course of his government.

In other words, the old cynic was saying, principle didn’t have much to do with it.

But the comment is a dose of realism. Circumstances, and the march of often unforseen events, shape the course of governments and of political life more widely, and their effect is often unpredictable.

The wave of emotion now sweeping the country over what is a global refugee crisis and New Zealand’s paltry effort in this area, would have been predicted by few.

The crisis itself is not new: the feeling about it in this country is. The mood is sweeping across the political spectrum and even, perhaps especially, not-particularly-political people are becoming swept up in it.

In the context of the crisis, New Zealand’s 750 annual quota refugees, unchanged for a generation,  looks heartless. To give it some context, our total annual quota is just six more than the 744 Polish children taken as refugees in 1944.

National – up against not only the usual opposition parties but all its support partners on the matter – is now manoeuvring to make its backdown look as un-clumsy as possible.

Prime Minister John Key’s political and moral flat-footedness on the issue made an even starker contrast to the flag-waving – literal and metaphorical – earlier in the week. Mr Key and other ministers began by posing with All Blacks and touting options for a new national emblem which would symbolise 21^st century New Zealand: by the end of the week this looked even more shameless than it did at the time.

That, plus senior National MP Maurice Williamson’s crude antics at an Auckland IT industry function, put the heat on the government and took attention away from Labour’s emerging divisions over partnership schools. Rising Labour MP Kelvin Davis attended the fundraiser for one such school in his electorate, despite his party being bitterly, ideologically opposed to such schools.

Economically, the news was mixed. Business confidence slumped, while the terms of trade unexpectedly improved and while building consents and building work in place roared ahead.

Debt, meanwhile, showed the biggest increase since just before the glob financial crisis.

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