Tatty left the real joke here

EMBITTERED old lefties still amusingly rant on about our greatest post-war government, the 1984 Labour administration.

Thus it was good to see John Roughan pay that government's key figures a well-deserved tribute in the Herald a month back, even if just to wind up those ranters (normally my thoroughly enjoyable domain), although he overlooked Michael Bassett in his heroes list.

Will anything cure the anachronistic, soured old die-hards? Obviously death which will be a blessing given their evident misery.

In one sense that will be a shame as they provide ongoing entertainment, just as Social Credit once did. Largely the Social Credit nutters were harmless, not a view, shared by some journalists though, who once negotiated danger money for attending their annual conference.

Another option for the cornucopian state faithful is to visit Cuba and Venezuela and see their desired order in action, or more accurately inaction.

Finally, they could win Lotto to experience an instant change of heart, as invariably happens to lefties experiencing a windfall. The record shows convertees from left to right tend towards extremism, as we saw with Roger Douglas who, in the late 1970s, was a price-control advocate and, by the mid-1990s, an Act Party founder.

So too Simon Walker, Labour Party president in the early 1980s and an adviser to British Conservative Party leader John Major by the early 1990s. Another was Rob Campbell, an embittered early 1980s unionist expected to eventually become the Federation of Labour president, who saw the light and today is a captain of industry with a visibly happy outlook on life.

Such dramatic changes amount to enlightened honesty, not hypocrisy.

The old die-hard left survivors pose a threat to our political process insofar as (to the despair of their political wing), they currently control the Labour Party, still our alternative government. Britain's PM Tony Blair shook them loose in the early 1990s, recognising he could never prevail otherwise.

This dilemma confronts Andrew Little who cannot sustain acceptance on the sole grounds of not being David Cunliffe. Waiting for the inevitable pendulum swing also won't do it as the danger exists of other parties filling the opposition void. Indeed, this is National's best hope for a fourth term, namely voters disdain for a fragmented coalition alternative.

That said, some pre-1984 attitudes remain entrenched. For example, many folk constantly demonstrate a proprietorial right over private property.

We witnessed this with the John Campbell hullabaloo. TV3 is free to viewers, thus complainants demonstrated outrageous impertinence in condemning its decisions, their reaction being as if it was state-owned and they had an ownership right. They don't and the channel can do what it damn well pleases, which is the essence of private property.

Although occupying a prime time slot, the fact is that Campbell pulls an uneconomic audience number for the ownership company, recently on the brink of bankruptcy. TVNZ would have axed him long ago on these ratings.

Enough has been said about Campbell's alleged virtues or shortcomings so I won't, but instead will comment on the claim he delivers serious investigative journalism. That's utter hogwash.

Serious journalism can only be found in measured, thoughtful essays. TV is the equivalent of comics when it comes to serious journalism, although undoubtedly it contributes a useful visual element, but that's it. At best it's akin to a pictorial book, say, on Victorian London.

Great for those seeking a once-over-lightly view but scarcely serious historical analysis. Such books aimed at the casual reader tend towards sensationalism in their emphasis as to a degree they're published as informative entertainment. But they lack nuance and deeper and wider analysis, just as with what passes as serious TV.

Most offensive in the Campbell hullabaloo was the abuse then heaped on TV3 for its other offerings, particularly The X Factor and The Bachelor - these shows are disgraceful down-market crap was the cry.

Personally, I think The X Factor and specially The Bachelor are degrading to their participants although plainly they don't, nor the show's audience, and that's all that counts.

But instead of simply not watching, the innuendo was that these hugely popular, and for TV3, life-saving shows, shouldn't exist.

On that banning lowest common denominator rationale, we should also prohibit McDonald's and other fried-fat purveyors, rugby league, rap so-called music, obesity, Pope-worshipping, talkback radio, tattoos and everything else favoured by the lower socio-economic orders, because as always with the old left relics, they know best with their enhancement prescriptions for everyone else's lives.

The indisputable fact, evidenced by Campbell's unsatisfactory audience numbers, is that his control freak supporters comprise a small, albeit vocal sector of the public. But as ever, these deadbeats makes lots of noise in lieu of substance - as the reaction to this column will evident.