Bruce Bisset: Old school rules won't help Yule

Bruce Bisset, Hawke's Bay Today columnist, Hastings.

Likely Tukituki National Party candidate Lawrence Yule is one of those interesting characters who doesn't wholly appear to fit with the party he associates with and who, in a wiser, more discriminating world, could have more appeal running as a local independent.

Indeed, the region and the country might be better off if he did, for (assuming he were elected) it would give him the separation and leverage in Parliament to champion his more liberal sympathies instead of being just another backbencher to whom no one need pay special attention.

Oh, I'm not saying the Hastings mayor isn't a blue-blood; coming from a background of relative privilege his natural proclivity is toward National - and it shows - but in the urbane "old school" sense - capitalism with a social conscience - rather than the wreck-it-and-rake-it-in-regardless regime of the ruling neo-liberal set.

True, that conscience is for Yule an intellectual exercise more than a genuine understanding; he's never had to grub for work or worry about how to pay the overdue bills while finding something to feed the family and keep a roof overhead.

But some awareness of the problems is better than a blind eye. And environmentally Yule has shown, through leadership of his council, he at least recognises climate change as the major crisis we must somehow face down, while also supporting keeping a tight rein on the use of GE-modified crops.

On those two issues he would find himself directly at odds with the prevailing mindset of any National government caucus. And while he may think his best chance to alter that is by working from within, I'll bet he'd be sadly mistaken.

This is where the "business as usual" approach falls down, because the old school rules no longer apply; ethical business that looks to build an ordered and generally-uplifted society and the grab-it-while-it's-still-there end-game outlook of the neo-liberals are two trains that have already collided - with the latter, unfortunately for all of us, coming out atop the wreckage.

The chance of fixing the "benevolent" train and getting it back on track before we are overwhelmed by the various plagues in the process of descending upon us is, frankly, near-zero.

Even if Yule isn't really the "nice guy" he sells himself as - and councillors who have felt marginalised by his in-my-clique-or-left-out management style may well dispute it - he nevertheless appears too "gentlemanly" to handle the constant knife-thrusts his colleagues (let alone the Opposition) would aim his way in the Beehive.

That said, anyone else looking to fill the "vacancy" left by neo-lib flunky Craig Foss' resignation will have a hard task winning.

Labour's Anna Lorck, aided by the Greens' Chris Perley playing the one-two strategy of personal and party voting, has a fighting chance (and fight she will) but she may have to reposition as "more centrist" to do it. Since she and Yule have history and are both polarising candidates, that seems unlikely, but the fact Yule will be standing on a pile of broken promises over his dedication to his role as mayor could well even things up for Lorck.

Certainly Yule does not represent the "paradigm shift" we (nationally and globally) need.

Labour may be sticking too many wagging tails on its dog to seem cohesive and the Greens may have amnesia over what activists should be doing but the two together still offer more hope for the future than any number of old-school Yules.

In another era Lawrence Yule could well be worth a vote. When the Government must change, he isn't.