Sir Bob Jones
nopunchespulled.com
A Herald newspaper correspondence, Vince West of Milford, attacked Mike Hosking for his “cynical and negative attitude to government initiatives.”
I gather Hosking has the nation’s largest radio audience which if so, suggests his views strike a chord with an awful lot of people who don’t simply fall over when told to do so by bureaucratic or political dullards.
I don’t listen to the radio but I do read the broadcaster’s opinions published regularly in the Herald. The first thing which always strikes me is how good a wordsmith he is, notably his first-rate economy.
But instead of condemning Hosking for not toeing the line, Vince West would do well to think more deeply about the role the broadcaster is filling and for that matter, also Heather Du Plessis-Allan who similarly doesn’t pull her punches in examining government initiatives.
Neither Mike nor Heather strike me as bloody-minded political bigots, albeit both probably have liberal rights of centre views. But my God they fill a vitally important function in a nation initially panicked by the unknown into a subservient accepting of a dictatorial regime of rules to a degree unprecedented in our history.
To clarify; not for a second do I think the government had or indeed has now, dictatorial desires. But these things can evolve unintentionally, as indeed they did earlier this year with the ill-considered initial lockdown fortnight regime of often nonsensical outrageously oppressive rules.
To refresh your memories, let’s not forget the armies of policemen patrolling beaches to ensure no-one was swimming. And why? Because should someone drown it could tie up a policeman or two in a body rescue.
Or you may walk or cycle alone in your own neighbourhood but must not move into a neighbouring one, as if it would make one iota of difference.
You may shop for food in supermarkets but not in specialist butcher or fish or fruiterers’ shops, why not God only knows, this madness resulting in all day queues.
Golf courses and bowling greens could not be cut by a worker on a tractor and so on and so on.
Somewhere in Wellington’s bureaucracy is a complete halfwit who created these farcical rules which the panicked government blindly initially accepted, so too the public.
Step up the Hoskings of this world for which in New Zealand there are all too few, to point out the foolishness and warn of the dangers to civil liberties.
Sure they don’t speak for left voters because by their dependency nature such people like being told what to do and even better, have Big Government do everything for them.
But they’re a minority, albeit a large one. Mike Hosking is doing an outstanding job in protecting citizens liberties, so too Heather. Long may they reign.
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