Bryce Edwards: Political round-up: January 10

Auckland Mayor Len Brown. Photo / AP

Len Brown may well be regretting going public about the ports dispute. He is looking like the meat in the sandwich by saying he 'supports both sides'. With a strike in progress and the ports company indicating it will push through wholesale contracting out, Brown's position appears to be based more on wishful thinking than on the reality of this rapidly escalating dispute - listen to Brown on RNZ's Summer Report here.

Bernard Orsman points out the contradiction between Brown's denial that the company is planning to smash the union and collective agreement, and Ports CEO Tony Gibson saying they have already started the process of finding private contractors to replace striking workers. See: Port chief ready to replace striking union workforce.

Having entered the fray, Brown politically now needs it to be resolved peaceably through negotiation. His influence with the unions is somewhat limited but, as the council is the sole owner of the ports, the management is directly accountable to the council.

For a leftwing view on the dispute, see James Henderson's What's really going on at Ports of Auckland and his second installment.

Stuff reports that the break up of the Rena may add to the disruption as there is speculation that floating containers may prevent ships entering Tauranga at night - see: Jenny Keown's Port pushes on with redundancy plan.

There's still plenty of advice being handed out to David Shearer, especially about how he can signal a break from Labour's past by adopting new political positions. There are increasing signs that Labour's own version of welfare reform may be one of those. Last week Trevor Mallard recommended a Guardian article in which the British shadow welfare spokesperson Liam Byrne questioned the extent of the modern welfare state, described by Mallard as a 'sacred cow' - see: UK Labour rethinking welfare state. Yesterday the Dominion Post recommended the same article to David Shearer - see: Wooing workers Shearer's challenge.

John Pagani has a similar recommendation, drawing inspiration from a very different British political figure - see: Why you should see the Maggie Thatcher movie. His prescription for Shearer: 'Labour will need to be trusted to reduce public debt, reform the welfare system and reward success for families in suburbs and provincial cities and towns.'

Mike Smith from The Standard and Chris Trotter in The Press are both very suspicious of such advice. Smith argues that ensuring beneficiaries have enough to live on is entirely consistent with the policies of the first Labour Government when it introduced the modern welfare state - see: Home advice better for Shearer. Trotter argues that Shearer's talk of 'growing the pie' is nothing new and actually represents the same fundamental economic policy that Clark and Cullen pursued -see: Labour's turning of the page seems to be backwards.

Finally, Toby Manhire outs John Key's cultural priorities in John Key puts NZ artists in their place, and following on from this Scott Yorke humorously speculates on future New Zealand literature awards - see: McCaw, Carter Supreme Winners At Literature Awards.