This past Tuesday we saw yet another PR stunt from Jacinda Ardern. She held a stand-up about some idiots who are using the protest for other than peaceful means. Like Ardern, they have their own agenda. Both their agenda and Ardern’s are doing nothing to resolve the situation. The Police are expected not only to cope with unacceptable behaviour but also somehow to end the occupation. This plan of action like all this Labour Government’s other plans, is doomed to failure.
Tuesday’s PR stunt was nothing more than an attempt to try and justify her refusal to talk to the people. I heard her say that, due to the rogue element in attendance, it was time for everyone else to leave. This is typical Jacinda: The people who have genuine concerns should now bow to the unruly and leave.
Throughout this pandemic those who have played by her rules, sometimes against their better judgement, are the ones she has penalised. ‘Ninety per cent jabbed and you get your freedoms back’ is one example. Her problem is that, in order to keep control, she has to keep shifting the goalposts. Once it became clear that she couldn’t justify the lockdowns, she had to find another form of control: Traffic lights.
She hasn’t ruled out bringing in the military. I would have thought one Tiananmen Square in the world was enough. Trevor might yet get his water cannon.
Traffic lights are a cunning way of having a lockdown when you’re not really having a lockdown. For a lot of businesses, the red light is not too far removed from a lockdown. It is hurting the same businesses that were hurt in the lockdowns: Hospitality, tourism and large events among others.
While masks, many of which are useless (except as dusters in the car) and vaccine passports (though mine doesn’t work), are required, we are not free. While the mandates are in place we are not free.
At her press conference on Monday, she waffled on; it was nothing we hadn’t heard before. Yes, the mandates would be lifted but she couldn’t say when. Sometime in the never never or, to be more specific, WELL AFTER the Omicron peak. Her words.
I have just read today that more Omicron variants are coming and they might be more dangerous. Ardern will be pleased. But she shouldn’t be. Eventually, the hole she is digging for herself in the name of control will swallow her up in a thing called a General Election.
I saw the headline of an article by Simon Wilson on the protest in the NZ Herald: Only the headline because thankfully it was Premium and, unlike the Government, I abhor wasting money so I am not a Premium subscriber. You may recall that the other day I bought a copy of The Herald and there too was an article on the protest by Simon Wilson. Although it gave me fodder for an article, I instantly regretted the purchase. Thank God for The BFD! Simon evidently thinks Christopher Luxon is wrong to say the protests are about mandates. That’s all I could read, and it was more than enough.
Ardern said what Luxon had to say was dangerously close to sympathising with the protesters. Well, someone needs to!
HDPA interviewed the owner of the Backbencher pub. His parting words were, “We’ve been very lucky with our Prime Ministers; Jim Bolger, Helen Clark, John Key, but this one, she’s out of her depth.”
It is Ardern’s fantasy that we are a team of five million; her slogans and fake kindness are not governing for the greater good. There never was a team of five million. Being kind is talking to your fellow countrymen and women camped outside your office, not dishing out empty platitudes.
