There are 120 Members of Parliament that make up the House. That is way too many for a start. On the basis of a population of around five million that works out to around one MP per 42,000 people. To illustrate the absurdity of the numbers let’s draw a comparison with the United Kingdom. They have a population of just over 67 million. If they had an MP for every 42,000 people Westminster would have 1,560 MPs. The House of Commons has 650 MPs, one for every 103,000 people. On that basis, one for every 103,000, our Parliament would consist of just 48 MPs.
Given the acumen of the current 120, those 48 would be more than enough. The left side of the House is completely devoid of any consequential grey matter. Most of their backgrounds make that an indisputable fact. Community workers, union organisers, teachers, lawyers, political hacks and activists, not to mention fish and chip wrappers, are not in any way qualified to run a country. These people have not even had a sniff of the real world.
The right side of the House is better placed when it comes to business world experience. Consequently, they are more clued up on economic matters, particularly when it comes to budgeting and prioritising spending. Where the right is falling down is on the pandemic. It’s a little bit like the spider and the fly, Labour being the spider and National and ACT the flies caught in the Covid web Labour has spun. Christopher Luxon has quite rightly pointed out there are over 400,000 votes National lost at the last election that need retrieving. To get those back he needs to change their Covid narrative.
I would suggest a large proportion of those voters are looking for a home other than Labour. They will be doing so for two reasons. First, they can see the economic damage being inflicted on the country by Labour’s Covid policies. They are over Covid. They are sick and tired of being told to go and get jabbed. Labour’s core vote might need to be told ad nauseam; National’s core voters don’t. They are quite capable of making up their own minds and don’t appreciate being lectured.
Both National and ACT need to shut their traps about getting jabbed. The constant harping on about getting the vaccine is an irritant and a turnoff. Those who might be attracted back to National or ACT are more interested in the economy and the pressing issue of inflation than Covid. They are also interested in getting their freedoms back. On this point, National and ACT are STILL not reading the room.
The Convoy to Wellington and other protests are not just anti-vax, they are about freedom in a democracy.
This is exactly what National and ACT should be standing up for. It is exactly why National and ACT should have gone out and met the Convoy. If they had any political nous, that is what they would have done. But no, apparently the Convoy are just anti-vaxxers out to cause trouble. They are not; they are potential National and Act voters from all over the country unhappy with this Government. Some were in a queue 70 km long. That’s over half way from Auckland to Hamilton.
I doubt there’ll be queueing to vote for either National or ACT after being ignored in an act of unparalleled political rudeness. This was the perfect opportunity for National and ACT to come out, address these people and tell them it is their right to not get the jab and to say, “We stand with you in the cause of freedom.” The only people smiling about this lack of action will be Jacinda Ardern and her MPs.
It is quite possible if either National or ACT had taken the time to listen to the people’s concerns and given an address, they would have dispersed. Instead, treated like some sort of disorganised rabble, they have stayed put, forcing the media to give them the sort of publicity the politicians so obviously didn’t want.
There are times when I despair at all 120 Members of Parliament and this is definitely one of them.
It’s somewhat ironic that Parliament is called the Beehive. Honeybees are very organised in their workplace, each one being designated a job and able to execute it. Collectively, honeybees are able to achieve an incredible level of sophistication, especially considering their brains are the size of sesame seeds. One could be forgiven for drawing a similarity on the last point. If only we had the bees running the country. Combined with the success of the dairy industry we would all be living in the land of milk and honey!
PS
I am aware there is a disruptive element amongst the Convoy, but they are in the minority and should not be tolerated. There are always those at these events that are there purely for what I call the ‘Big Day Out’.
