Andrew Dickens: Overreacting to the UN again

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.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm always amazed at how much credence the United Nations
has given in domestic New Zealand politics. So look, the
left loves the UN's pronouncements on where New Zealand stands
because it reinforces the of you that we've got a
lot to feel guilty about. We should do something about it.
The right, meanwhile, believes that the UN can supersede our

(00:22):
sovereignty and is an enemy to be repelled at all costs.
But that's not the truth. Here's the truth. The UN
is an ineffectual bureaucracy. It's a giant global virtue signal,
judging its signatories to an idealistic standard that is often
unachievable in the modern world. But it makes us all
feel good. There's nothing wrong with the UN writing these

(00:42):
sorts of reports because it might be nice to live
in a world full of unicorns. But they're still just words,
and they have no deep context and no significance. So
David Seymour. David Seymour obviously took offense at one such report,
and in a fitted Peak Lake one night, drunk on
the power of being Deputy Prime Minister, fired off an
angry letter signed Grumpy of Ebsom to the UN. That's

(01:06):
obviously not his job, and it's right that he's been
told off about it, But that is about that in
the story. It's caused a minutor 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 the so called international embarrassment because the world
has a lot more to be embarrassed and worried about,

(01:27):
rather than some that will report by an arm of
the UN that criticizes one piece of legislation in a
very small country globally. So chill out about the UN
other than how much it costs us. But chill out
about them. They're not the boss of us. They're not
the boss of anyone, and that is their biggest problem
in getting anything tangible done. For more from early edition

(01:49):
with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News Talks it Be
from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.