[AFAIK]

The New Statesman is a left wing British periodical.

Recently I have noticed a series of articles praising the superiority of other nations in certain areas. This month Sweden is praised for its party conferences. Last month Germany's economy was lauded. I find this curious. Is it common to look to others for examples of superior systems? Surely there are many factors in complex systems. Is it naive to point to another nation's successes and hope to emulate them? Is it even desirable to emulate them? Do any right wing publications do the same?

http://www.newstatesman.com/

[Figlio di Moros]

What sort of "left-wing" would laud the German economy?

[slybaldguy]

I see nothing wrong with seeking to learn from other countries. It's arrogant and foolish to automatically assume that we know better than other countries. That's not to say we should imitate other countries, but i think we should look at what works for other countries and perhaps learn one or two lessons.

[Istanbuller]

That website is terrible. I saw that there was an article that telling how immigration is good for Europe on that website.

[Heisenberg]

The New Statesman is drivel. It apparently used to be quite a serious left-wing newspaper, but I've only ever known it as partisan Blairite trash. I can't, for the life of me, understand how they came to take Mehdi Hasan (who was Senior Political Editor for a long time) seriously as a "journalist". All he does is write juvenile gossip columns praising Ed Miliband, of all people.

I see nothing wrong with seeking to learn from other countries. It's arrogant and foolish to automatically assume that we know better than other countries. That's not to say we should imitate other countries, but i think we should look at what works for other countries and perhaps learn one or two lessons.

That's all very well, but the New Statesman/Guardian types who fawn over other countries (it's mainly just Sweden, in all honesty) tend to want to turn Britain into a hellish multicultural dystopia. They should be opposed with extreme prejudice. I think we could learn a lot from Germany, particularly with regard to education, manufacturing and railway policy. I doubt you'd see an NS lead article praising any of Germany's methods in those areas though.

Edit: I've just re-read this post, and it's quite an angry one. Oh well.

[Prosthetic Conscience]

I think we could learn a lot from Germany, particularly with regard to education, manufacturing and railway policy. I doubt you'd see an NS lead article praising any of Germany's methods in those areas though.

Don't be so sure. For instance (not a lead article, but one written by the now-general secretary of the Trades Union Congress):

In free societies, collective bargaining is seen as an essential brake on unbridled corporate power and a means to ensure a fairer distribution of wealth between wages and profits. In the UK, however, collective bargaining coverage in the private sector is down to 17 per cent and looks set to shrink further unless new institutions are developed to shore it up. German-style worker representation on supervisory boards is only one model, but a commitment to exploring the principle of codetermination, and how corporate governance must be reformed to enact it, would be a good start.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/po ... ld-britain

Vince Cable, writing in the New Statesman shortly after becoming Business Secretary:

I think there are lessons to learn from countries such as Germany and Korea, which take science and technical education, infrastructure and long-term finance for industry incredibly seriously.

http://www.newstatesman.com/education/2 ... omy-public

From the issue which AFAIK thought was lauding Germany too much:

What Labour should take from the Germans is a governing ideology that understands human nature as based on self-interest broadly conceived, an ideology in which the well-being of others is a condition of our own flourishing, and in which the preservation of quality through the practices of democratically organised, non-pecuniary institutions is as necessary as fiscal discipline and the upholding of individual rights.

The prevailing paradigms cannot explain why the economy with the highest level of workforce participation in its governance, the greatest degree of regulation of labourmarket entry through vocational enforcement and the most severe constraints on capital in its banking system should be the most competitive in Europe, as well as its most efficient. However, an explanation of the comparative superiority of the German economy should be central to Labour’s new economic offer. We are all in this together in ways that George Osborne cannot begin to understand.

Such a political position requires the following: a reassertion of the value of labour and the representation of the workforce in corporate governance; a renewed role for vocational institutions in reproducing skill; selforganised universities run by academics on the basis of the internal goods of knowledge rather than the external goods of money or policy objectives; self-governing cities with the power to shape the destiny of their citizens; and the endowment of regional banks that can resist the domination of the “Big Six” in internal investment and enable access to capital in regions where there is no nourishment to be found. A renewal of solidarity in social security and welfare is also required, one that establishes solidarity, subsidiarity and status as guiding principles. A politics of mutual sacrifice is the necessary complement to that of mutual benefit. That is the meaning of reciprocity.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/po ... y-succeeds