Jacinda Ardern and her ministers have steadfastly refused to speak with protesters who massed on the doorstep of parliament expressing outrage at her regime’s policies. The tactic, until yesterday, was to hurl abuse and labels at them. But now, for some strange reason I can’t quite put my finger on, Jacinda Ardern has performed a reverse ferret and has agreed to meet with Groundswell protesters
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will meet leaders of the Groundswell protest movement, in turnaround after declining to meet with them.
The Government has previously been combative against Groundswell NZ, which in 2021 organised large protests against a range of Government regulations and reforms affecting the rural sector. Cabinet Minister Stuart Nash in November described the group as “a mixture of racism, anti-vax”.
Ardern has twice declined the meet Groundswell organisers Bryce McKenzie and Laurie Paterson. However, on Friday, a spokesman for Ardern confirmed a meeting would now take place.
McKenzie said the group received an email from the prime minister on Wednesday.
Stuff
Remember Willie Jackson once described them as “angry anti-vaxxers and bitter bigots” and “stupid and counterproductive” and “unhinged and ludicrous”. I wonder how he feels now that the tyrant Jacinda Ardern is going to meet with them? I wonder how long his Facebook post stays up?
Then there are the comments from Stuart Nash, describing Groundswell as “unsavoury” and “a mixture of racism, anti-vax”. When confronted about his comments, he not only refused to retract his statements, but then doubled down:
Stuart Nash says unsavoury people “hijacked” Groundswell’s website and there’s no way he will apologise for saying the movement has racist and anti-vax elements.
The Labour MP and Cabinet Minister today said he was standing up for colleague Nanaia Mahuta after a Groundswell co-ordinator portrayed Mahuta as a gang member.
Ross Townshend resigned as director of Waikato dairy co-op Tatua but Act has been demanding Nash apologise for comments about Groundswell.
Today, Nash doubled down on his remarks but also suggested only a small or rogue element within Groundswell was problematic.
NZ Herald
I guess Minister Nash and Jackson won’t be attending.
How coincidental is it then, that a meeting manages to be arranged on the eve of a disastrous poll result in the 1News/Kantar poll.
Maybe headlines like this from Newshub contributed:
Or this one from the Daily Mail are starting to hurt the tyrant?
Then there are the results from their internal polling with UMR which are showing a precipitous fall in their support; Labour 37, National 36, Green 9, Act 7, NZ First 3.2 and Maori 2.9.
Or perhaps it is UMR’s other polling which shows that most voters, 73%, think that worse is yet to come, and just 27% think the worst is behind us, added to a view that 66% think the economic outlook for the country is poor.
Make no mistake, these poll results are clearly showing Labour’s previously unassailable lead has disappeared completely and they face the very real risk of being obliterated at the next election.
The tyrant’s backbenchers will be squealing right now because with those numbers 20 or more of them are going to disappear.
Jacinda Ardern is going to get used to ferrets in her trousers and become very skilful at performing reverse ferrets given the state the polls are at. But every flip flop, somersault or reverse ferret destroys the perception in voters’ minds that Labour were competent managers of the economy or indeed any issue.
No amount of pithy slogans, concerned looks, tilted heads or the idiot partner putting pictures of cats on social media is going to stop the decline now.
Jacinda Ardern is like the proverbial first five who has only ever worked behind a forward pack that destroyed the opposition. It is quite a different matter when the props are lame, the hooker can’t hook, the loosies are useless and the halfback has a bad case of dropsies.
It is very hard to win when your opponents now have the ball. Isn’t it delicious to watch?
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