by frog
I was going to comment on the Herald’s latest foray into unusually invalid polls (this time polling ‘the mood of the boardroom’) but it seems that 08wire has beaten me to it much more succinctly:
What a tremendously unbiased sample the Herald has chosen for their survey about our political leaders. I’ll look forward to their equally credible follow up “Mood of the Unionised Workplace Smoko Room.” Prediction: opposite result.
And of course these infotainment leadership ‘polls’ continue to treat the election like an FPP one where voters only have two choices, which does nothing to help people make informed choices.
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
I’d be interested to see a ‘mood of the clergy’ poll. Not because it’s important or anything, but just because I suspect the Kiwi and Family parties wouldn’t do anywhere near are well as they think they would.
Most members of the clergy who I know personally are Green Party supporters, but I’m sure that’s one of the most biased samples in the world.
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Frog – Thanks for the link. Glad we’re of one mind on this kind of nonsense!
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I agree with Frog and Rob’s derision of the political views of business leaders, and about the need to survey workers in the same way.
But these business polls are actually incredibly valuable, because they allow us further information about what “the ruling class” are thinking. And the opinions of business leaders have incredible sway over governments, and also allow us an insight into how aligned political parties are with this ruling class.
Another recent business survey by the Independent Financial Review showed that the business community has lost confidence in the Labour Government, yet isn’t convinced that the National Party will carry out the necessary changes that they support. In many ways this mirrors the Independent’s pre-election business survey that preceded Clark’s Labour Party coming to power in 1999. That survey of employers reported that they believed the National government should be voted out and that the Labour Party was then the preferred choice of business.
But taken together, all these business political surveys show that business in New Zealand is no longer partisan in the way that it used to be. The business community sometimes prefers National and sometimes prefers Labour. At the moment Labour is out of fashion with business, but not because National is viewed as being significantly more aligned with the interests of business, but more because the incumbent government is seen as being tired. I’ve written a bit more about this at: http://liberation.typepad.com/liberation/2008/08/business-says-t.html
Bryce
http://www.liberation.org.nz
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Nothing has changed since 1984. Bruce Jesson (1989) described the cabal that imposed the New Right agenda on NZ thus: “…the inner circle of the Business Round Table: Gibbs, Myers, Fay, Richwhite, Trotter etc. These people are indiscriminate in their taste in political parties but single minded in their ideology. They will fund any party that will further their New Right agenda.”
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