By popular request

I didn't mention it yesterday, because I'm trying to keep a cap on the number of posts about how awful the front page looks. But yes, it does seem ridiculous to have a front-page story about the fact that Ian Brodie is now a lobbyist. And the headline is ridiculous too:

"PM's former adviser accused of peddling access to corridors of power"

... in other words accused of being a lobbyist. Shock, horror, shock. Of course he's a lobbyist: that's what people like that do, after leaving the PMO and similar, and I've never understood why it's viewed as inherently evil. Our political system depends absolutely on a large cadre of full-time career political hacks -- the guys who run the campaigns, keep the party machinery working, develop policy, talent-spot and hold things together for whichever party is out of power. They don't hold elected office (a good thing) and aren't really employable outside of politics either (also good). Meanwhile given the nature of our system there are bound to be lobbyists of some description. Having the hacks employed as the lobbyists is a very effective way to get big business to massively subsidize the costs of our political system, without it being perceived as a tax. Of course governments that make bad policy because of insider lobbying are bad governments, but that doesn't have to be the outcome and it's a whole nother problem.