The good news they don't want you to know

The good news they don’t want you to know
Excessive negativity and unjustified alarmism are two reasons why the public is being turned off the mainstream media.

The buildup to the London Olympics was full of such stuff, only for all of it to be proven a crock when the actual reality arrived with Danny Boyle’s dazzling opening ceremony, which contrasted heavily with the heavy-handed Beijing effort in 2008.

US presidential hopeful Mitt Romney fell for the media nega-hype when he referred to it on his visit to London – only to be justifiably howled down.

Aside of the parochial aspects, such as New Zealand’s strong performance despite some big disappointments, the main benefactor of the Games has been the host country.

After a strong showing at Beijing, Team GB has exceeded all expectations and brought breathed new life into its often derided monicker “Great Britain.”

Naturally, commentators across the political spectrum have had plenty to say, so I can only choose a selection.

Daniel Hannan, a Conservative MEP (member of the European parliament), had platforms in both the Telegraph and the Mail.

In the former, he noted the united nature of Team GB and the revival of patriotism:

Just as English and Scottish athletes worked together to win gold medals in rowing and equestrianism, so have English and Scottish (and Welsh and Irish) engineers, soldiers, financiers, explorers worked together to raise these islands to greatness.

Then in the Mail he ridiculed claims the British performance was a triumph of multiculturalism – a touchstone of the left – and argued for exactly the opposite:

In the run-up to the Games, we enjoyed the [BBC] comedy series Twenty Twelve, in which a gang of quangocrats and busybodies chuntered on endlessly about multi-culturalism, inclusivity and diversity. The Games themselves, by contrast, are about patriotism, elitism and ruthless competition.

Among other things, Hannan  observed that the Games demonstrated three points that support conservative values:
• The Games reminded us of quite how much we admire the Armed Forces, who are supplying so much of the security

• Families are much better than government agencies as providers of education, inspiration, healthcare, social security and discipline

• The Games are a vindication of competition in schools

Britain’s greatest achievement
The contrast in views was plainly demonstrated by this item on Boyle’s opening in the Telegraph's Mandrake column quoting Rowan Atkinson’s older brother and political economist Rodney Atkinson:

“The truth was that [the industrial revolution] emancipated us all and especially the ex-rural workers who suffered heavy labour in cold, rain and heat. They then had, by comparison, much less strenuous, mechanised lives.

“The Left never understand internationalism and the wealth which arises from free trade among free peoples and cultures. That is Britain’s greatest achievement. Their aim is supra-national, where peoples and cultures are subsumed, as they were in this ceremony, into a 'levelling’ Statist mish-mash, which inevitably leads to failure and conflict.”

In the Guardian, Aditya Chakrabortty said the ceremony was an acceptance of Britain’s economic decline:

When Britain first staged the Olympics in 1908, it was the world's superpower; by 1948, it was merely the least bombed-out economy in war-torn Europe. This time, however, the UK is among the most badly capsized economies in northern Europe, desperately hoping to drum up some business through what Boris Johnson tastefully describes as a 'schmoozeathon.'

Also in the Guardian, Tristram Hunt was tough on the right-wing critics, such as Atkinson.

Meanwhile check out the actual medal table compared with those of various prediction models. They are remarkably similar, the only difference being (so far) they have under-estimated Britain.

Why unions oppose privatisations…
Spare a thought for the Greek government, which is trying to battle its way out of debt through privatisation.

Government ownership of a raft of businesses – from casinos to railways and power stations – has mainly benefited its employees through powerful unions.

As in New Zealand, unions are strongly opposed to changing the status quo.

In an excellent analysis, the Washington Post’s Michael Birnbaum has painted a picture of mismanagement, overstaffing, billion-dollar debts and corrupt letting of contracts to cronies.

Proceeds from privatisation have been wildly below targets. The country was initially supposed to reap $US61.5 billion by 2015, a goal picked by Greece’s creditors not because it was an estimate but because it was the number needed to bring down Greece’s debt to politically acceptable levels. Privatisation was expected to bring in $US4.4 billion this year alone. Instead, it has made only $US369 million, and [XX] Mitropoulos says that delays from the long election season mean that nothing else will be sold this year.

…and why they don’t understand business
Meanwhile, opponents of the mixed ownership model, otherwise known as a part selldown of state-owned businesses, will no doubt be cheering news of Pacific Aluminium’s attempts to reduce the cost of its power from Meridian’s underground Manapouri station, built at vast cost to the taxpayer.

Not because it will mean Tiwai Point becomes more viable – the chances are it won’t – but because it means the value of Meridian will fall and taxpayers will be worse off. That is the twisted logic of state ownership advocates.

If Tiwai was closed, it would free up 15% of the country’s electricity, push prices down and mean no new generation would be required for at least a decade.

Of course, given the jobs at risk, the unions would just as likely urge the government to buy the smelter. I looked into this in an NBR column last year, available here in the subscriber-only archive, when Rio Tinto first indicated it wanted out of the aluminium business: 

Aluminium is the troubled child among the hard commodities. Demand is dropping from car, aircraft and packing manufacturers, while the cost is going up.

Moreover, that demand is dropping in developed western economies and rising in China, which now accounts for nearly half the world’s consumption and is also the world’s largest producer.

The huge amount of power used in smelting bauxite to make aluminium is its Achilles’ heel. For example, only heavily discounted power at Tiwai Point makes that smelter viable. If it was closed, as some have suggested, the country’s total power bill would drop substantially and planned development could be put on hold.

Aluminum is often described as more like condensed electricity than refined bauxite and longer term the metal’s profit potential is limited by China’s ability to keep producing it cheaply in a state-command economy.