Slip-Sliding Away.

Antipodean politicians will either construct a post-neoliberal future or see their own futures slip-sliding away.

“SLIP-SLIDING AWAY” is one of those Paul Simon songs that refuses to leave your head for hours and hours. That it re-entered my head in the tragic circumstances of the Mt. Maunganui landslide made it even more annoying.

Simon’s lyrics make it clear that the slippage metaphor which he uses to anchor his song is about psychological, not physical, shifts. He reminds us that hopes and good intentions are hard to keep in place, and prone to collapsing at exactly the wrong moment.

In the months ahead we shall discover exactly how many of the responsible public authorities’ good intentions somehow never made it to their destination. Maybe this time the fullest measure of official accountability will be exacted. More likely it will, once again, slip away.

Reading the latest polls from New Zealand and Australia makes it clear that landforms are not the only solid things slipping and sliding away. In both countries voters from the right and the left are falling away from their traditional political loyalties and collapsing into the arms of the populists.