Claire Trevett’s article in the Weekend Herald provided an interesting headline. It read, ‘PM needs dusting of sweet news on stale cake’. The reality, which maybe Claire has yet to realise, is that the PM’s cake is not only stale but also decidedly sour. Many of her cakes, in policy terms, are half-baked. No amount of added sweetness, even brown sugar, will help a stale, half-baked sour lemon cake.
The implication from Claire was that Spring had actually arrived, the All Blacks won courtesy of the referee and we missed a recession with economic growth of 1.7%. Therefore Ardern wanted to hit the reset button with a bit of a spring clean to rid the government of the cobwebs of Covid. A couple of points to make here. The avoiding of a recession was due to hard-working Kiwis rather than a lazy incompetent government. Getting rid of the Covid cobwebs, something most of us have already done, is simply because her government is tanking in the polls.
Claire said the government pressed on with disbanding the Covid rules even though the Queen had died (gosh they’re hard-working aren’t they?) because Ardern wanted to front it and she was leaving for London the next day. Good news and Ardern wanted to front it? Well, there’s a surprise…NOT.
Claire opined on Ardern’s interesting choice of phrase saying, “We take back control”. So who exactly is “we”? If she means everyday Kiwis we already had some time ago. Claire said she meant the government wanted to take back control. I’d like to know when they’ve ever relinquished it!
Since arriving in London, according to the paper Claire writes for, Ardern has managed at least two audiences with the King. In reality, this amounted to queueing in a line with others for a quick “Hello” with Charles who was probably thinking, “Why the bloody hell do I have to do this?”. She has also met with Liz Truss and managed a few words with Joe Biden. (Did he remember who she was?) According to Claire’s enlightening newspaper, Ardern also managed to farewell the King. I thought she was there to farewell the Queen and for a moment was under the misapprehension that Charles had joined his dear Mama.
The newspaper in question tells us Ardern is now on her way to New York to address the United Nations. It appears, other than a school, this is the place she most likes visiting. Please don’t for a moment think this is easy folks. Her newspaper tells us that, according to the busy lady herself, she has to have a quick change of mindset and she has a lot of work to do on the flight. Dear me, what a frantic life she leads.
Meanwhile, amongst all this bucket of syrup, we’re being fed, back at home, the stale half-baked sour lemon cake still awaits attention. Is that mould I see?
