HAPPY CLAPPY TALK

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Finance Minister Grant Robertson just want you to be happy...

IN 2016 FINANCE MINISTER GRANT ROBERTSON dismissed UK Labour's economic policies claiming that they 'wouldn't necessarily work here'. So while Jeremy Corbyn and his Labour Party have every intention to topple neoliberalism in Britain, in New Zealand it is 'business as usual'.

But while Robertson might be less than supportive of UK Labour's policies, that hasn't stopped him from raiding the Conservative Party for ideas. In particular, Robertson has sought guidance from ex-UK Prime Minister David Cameron.

In 2010 Cameron announced he wanted Britain to become one of the first country's in the world to measure happiness. That's right. Happiness.

An economic advisor to Cameron commented:

 "While it’s right that GDP plays a central role in monetary and fiscal policy, it has long been recognised as presenting an incomplete picture of how our society is doing. The UK will be one of the first countries to bring together official statistics on other measures that will tell us, for example, how households are doing, including how well off people are feeling."

Cameron chimed in: “This measure that we are setting out reaffirms the fact that our success as a country is about more than economic growth. It will open a national debate about how together we can build a better life. It will help bring about a reappraisal of what matters."

It was noted by UK Labour that Cameron's sudden concern for the British people's level of happiness didn't include removing any of the measures that were making them miserable. British people would of been far more happy if their social services weren't being reduced, if benefits weren't being cut and if some kind of meaningful effort - like building more state houses for example- was introduced to tackle the housing crisis. None of this, of course, happened.

In February this year Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that new Zealand too wanted to be one of the first country's in the world to measure happiness. In fact Ardern claimed that New Zealand would be the first place:

John McDonnell : "The historic name for that society is socialism."

"We want New Zealand to be the first place in the world where our budget is not presented simply under the umbrella of pure economic measures, and often inadequate ones at that, but one that demonstrates the overall wellbeing of our country and its people."

The result of all the happy-clappy talk will be a "Wellbeing Budget" in 2019. Given that there will no rocking of the economic boat - certainly no toppling of neoliberalism - it is unsurprising that the majority of business suits have clambered aboard Grant's Happy Choo-Choo Train. Apparently we're all heading to the land of Compassionate Capitalism, where unicorns bound across the green fields and the streets are paved with gold.

Meanwhile the dour old UK Labour Party, the party whose policies 'would not necessarily work here' (Grant Robertson), just had its annual conference. Finance spokesperson John McDonnell delivered a keynote speech on how Labour plans to transform the British economy.

In his introduction to the book Economics For The Many , McDonnell writes : " We are seeking nothing less than to build a society that is radically fairer, more democratic and more sustainable, in which the wealth of society is shared by all. The historic name for that society is socialism."

Another step toward that socialist goal was unveiled by McDonnell at the Labour conference. Under a Labour government large companies will have to transfer a maximum of 10 percent of their shares to their workers. As well workers will make up a third of all large company boards.

I don't think New Zealand business would welcome similar policies here. But they need not worry. The last thing that this Labour-led government would ever do is introduce anything that even faintly smelled of socialism. Instead Jacinda and Grant just want us to be happy as we struggle to pay the rent and as we head on down to the local food bank...