Last Thursday my inlaws and the rest of the ‘far now’ – turned up at our house. They heard the warnings of Cyclone Gabrielle bearing down on them, decided “stuff this” and fled the Hokianga for more pleasant surroundings: Taieri Plains, the “Capitalist Command Centre” (ie: my house) and normal people. As usual it is great to see everybody and fortunate they had somewhere to escape to.
Watching the television in recent hours has been difficult at times; numerous places around the North Island I know reasonably well – Northland, Coromandel, Hawkes Bay, Auckland – flooded, people displaced from their houses and roads closed, cutting entire regions off from the rest of the country. Rivers I have fished in at levels which seem inconceivable, particularly the flooding around the Napier Golf Course; the Tutaekuri River. We stayed with friends who live on a hill just above there not too long ago and the river was barely a trickle. As for this business out in Muriwai and the fireman ending up in hospital; well, doesn’t bear thinking about, does it?
The cyclone and the damage it has caused is similar to the situation we as a nation are in. Forces have been wreaking havoc, enormous damage has resulted, but – and this is most important – if you wait it out the storm passes and the sun comes out. Life returns to normal.
As is usual in these situations there is an historical precedent for what is currently occurring. Parallels between the late 1970s and today are remarkable; everything from a weak, discredited US President to inflation to left wing nonsense to gangster left wingers running amok was commonplace.
Except the people weren’t into any of that nonsense; the left wingers – to their surprise as events transpired – hadn’t won “hearts and minds”. Waiting in the wings was Margaret Thatcher and Ron Reagan (and others) who did win hearts and minds for a generation. There is even an argument to say the 1978 midterm elections in the US were a surprise to conservatives much like last November.
The other interesting historical parallel with today surrounds certain political leaders. Strange as it seems, Margaret Thatcher was almost unelectable for the first four years she was Tory party leader; widely criticised within her party, a major electoral liability for Tory canvassers on the doorstep. Until she won a general election. It was similar for Ron Reagan who was saying things which set various Republicans hand wringing and wondering what their opponents would say; much like today.
Even more remarkable historically; people forget these things; the media in the 1970s was quite left wing. Almost every TV drama to come out of Britain was pretty left wing (look it up; you’ll be surprised), and even in the US there was subtle demonisation of the status quo in movie after movie.
So my point in all this dear reader is to urge you not to buy into the talking points of our opponents. The Labour party knows perfectly well this notion that the National party is full of lefty wokesters is utterly preposterous. They know – as do I – there’s actually quite a few people merely waiting to be in government before showing their true colours and turning things around, which in turn discredits forever left wing governments.
We are currently in the middle of the cyclone, damage is widespread, you may feel like giving up; but better times are just around the corner.
