The Mike Hosking Breakfast

You may remember that Morgan McSweeney was one of Keir Starmer's fall guys in the Mandelson scandal.
He ran the Labour Party's 2024 campaign that saw Labour land a comparatively small amount of the vote (37%) in exactly the right places to give them a stonking great majority and end 14 years of Tory rule.
It ended badly for McSweeney. It's ending badly for Starmer, and a bloke who never got elected by Britain is going to run the place in a few weeks, theoretically for the next three years.
I tell you this because McSweeney has never spoken before, until now.
What he says is fascinating. He claims the party didn’t prepare properly for power, didn’t think about how the world had changed since they were last in Government, didn't talk about it enough, and didn't plan, and that's why Starmer was such a disaster.
What makes it fascinating for us is:
1) It was Starmer and Labour that Chris Hipkins visited in Liverpool at their conference to get tips.
2) It's Hipkins and Labour, according to former MP and Speaker Trevor Mallard, who ended up at the Featherston book fair telling exactly the same story about his party.
So do we have a theme, or a trait? Are Labour groupings essentially lazy, or blind, or arrogant? Or a combination of all three?
Labour NZ 2017 set a record in working groups because they hadn't prepared for Government. They had nine years to do so. Labour in Britain had 14 years.
Perhaps as interesting is Peter Dunne's latest column in Newsroom where he reports that the recent Labour congress here was well staged but lacked anything new. Subsidies for apprenticeships are worthy, but dull, and reminds voters of the economic mess Labour last got us into.
Do labour movements lack imagination?
The two may be coincidental, but they might not be. Is Labour about simply waiting for the other lot to lose? At their heart, are they not actually up for a bit of hard work and prep?
New Zealand Labour were jettisoned for a calamitous record. British Labour would be on the verge of it if they didn’t have five-year terms.
McSweeney, Mallard, and Dunne all tell a similar story.
If you're a potential Labour supporter here, surely that story is worrying, if not frightening.
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Hard-right politician Nigel Farage is resigning from UK Parliament, only to stand again.
The Reform Party Leader's running in the Clacton by-election after triggering a vote when he stood down as MP.
He remains under financial scrutiny for not declaring a £5 million gift, but currently only has joke-candidate Count Binface standing in his way.
UK Correspondent Enda Brady told Mike Hosking he's sure he'll win, despite the public being sick of him.
But he says if Farage thinks he's saving democracy and isn't spraying cash – hosting a by-election costs around £2 million.
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At the end of each week, Mike Hosking takes you through the big-ticket items and lets you know what he makes of it all.

The World Cup: 8/10
Even a person like me who has minimal, if any, interest in football at the best of times is increasingly mesmerised by people like Messi and teams like England. It's why it’s the biggest sport there is.

The Reserve Bank: 5/10
Read the room poorly. Don't cock up the recovery. They haven't, they may not, but did a fragile state of mind need a dose of bad news?

The NRL TV deal: 8/10
That’s the story of a well-told story. V'Landys and Co. dream big, sell well, and bank the results.

Wellington: 7/10
I love you. The airport is close to town, Koji has as good a food as anywhere, and it has architecture Auckland could learn from. I was just there for a night, but it was enough to be back for more.

Trump's crypto: 2/10
Making money off dummies. One million people have lost $5 billion on Trump crypto. Cool president.

LISTEN ABOVE FOR MIKE HOSKING'S FULL WEEK IN REVIEW
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You can't bag the Monetary Policy Committee.
Well, you can, but in this case, you would be fairly churlish.
Personally, I would have held, but given the vote was done by consensus I clearly would have been a lone voice.
Three hikes are coming, we may get them every other meeting, and we will end up with a cash rate of 3.25%.
If you want the glass half full, look at Australia. Their cash rate is well into the 4% and inflation is far from over. And that’s before I get to the upcoming jobs issues, not to mention the property correction.
But back to us. Inflation is why they are hiking and will continue to hike.
But, and it's a big 'but', surely there is an argument that says it's not as bad as we feared? And not just that, it's peaked and is trending down – down to exactly where it needs it to be.
Besides, a lot of the inflation remaining is council rates and cost-plus-accounting from power prices.
The Taxpayers Union blames the Government, which is an Australian argument, but not applicable here.
The Government has an operating budget of $2.1 billion, which is anaemic. We are $3 billion better off on latest figures than we thought.
The Government is not blowing out the inflation.
But the main reason I would have held is the psychology of pulling the trigger too soon. We are fragile. New Zealand loves a funk and we have been in a funk, and we don’t need misery merchants.
The bank is clinical, which in part is their job. But a good part of any economy is the psychology of it, the vibe of it, the mood of it.
We need help on the mood. We need a lesson to get on with it, and we need to be encouraged. A rate hike doesn’t do that.
Look, this isn't a disaster. It's not even a bad mistake. It's probably just an unwelcome attitude driven by number wonks, not empaths, who could have been a bit more generous.
New Zealand is on the move again. The bank says 25 points doesn’t hinder that.
I'm not convinced they're right.
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At the end of a short week, Kate Hawkesby and Tim Wilson are back with Mike Hosking to Wrap the Week that Was.
They discussed the All Blacks’ travelling gear, whether it’s acceptable for kids to go barefoot in restaurants, and what people should actually be wearing in public.
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