Andrew Dickens: Overreacting to the UN again - Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

I’m always amazed at how much credence the United Nations is given in domestic New Zealand politics. 

The left loves the UN pronouncements on New Zealand’s stances because if reinforces their view that we’ve got much to feel guilty about. 

Meanwhile the right somehow believes that the UN can supersede our sovereignty and is an enemy to be repelled at all costs. 

But the UN is actually an ineffectual bureaucracy.  A giant global virtue signaller judging its signatories to an idealistic standard that is often unachievable in the modern world. 

There’s nothing wrong with the UN writing these reports because it might be nice to live in a world full of unicorns,  but they’re just words and often have little deep context. 

David Seymour obviously took offence at one such report and in a fit of pique late one night, drunk on the power of being Deputy Prime Minister, fired off an angry letter signed Grumpy of Epsom. 

That’s obviously not his job, and it’s right that he’s been told off about it. 

And that's about that. It's caused a minor tiff amongst the coalition partners because of process and pecking order, but it's not the major crack in the coalition that some claim. 

And don't worry about so called international embarrassment because the world has a lot more to be embarrassed and worried about rather than some little report by an arm of the UN that criticises one piece of legislation in a very small country globally. 

So, chill out about the UN. They’re not the boss of us. They’re not the boss of anyone. That’s their biggest problem in getting anything tangible done. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.