A couple of weeks ago I headlined my article ‘Mouthing Off is a No No’. Since then more examples have arisen. What is becoming very clear, at least among politicians, is that this is very much a generational divide. I wonder if the younger generation of current politicians in parliament have heard of the phrase ‘call a spade a spade’? They should have as it has been around since 1542. If so, they seem very reluctant to apply it to their everyday lives. The two politicians most likely to apply the phrase are Winston Peters (81) and Shane Jones (66). They are two of four politicians over 65 years old: the other two being Gerry Brownlee and Damien O’Connor.
Shane has been in hot water over his ‘butter chicken tsunami’ remark referring to the possible invasion of Indian immigrants, courtesy of the recently signed FTA. Now Winston is taking a hot bath for telling another person of Asian ethnicity, a Green MP by the name of Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan, that if he didn’t like the democracy here, then go back to China where there is none. This came about while Winston was delivering a speech in parliament where Xu-Nan kept interjecting. T’was like a starting gun going off: some MPs, sporting a woke mentality, raced out of the blocks – their political correctness on full display.
The fact he is foreign minister apparently gave them so-called ammunition. To those of us who ‘call a spade a spade’, this was no more than a bit of verbal crossfire in parliament that serves to liven up a place that could be more accurately called Woke Central. Predictably it got the leftie media livened up. Here was a comment to make a meal of. It could be regurgitated for days. It was. There was no real malice in the remark; just some truth regarding democracy. But no, in this day and age it is un-PC to utter such invectives, especially when you’re foreign minister.
Little Christopher Hipkins was having none of it. Trying to hide his boyish looks by showing strength through verboseness, he loudly proclaimed that Winston wouldn’t be a foreign minister in any government he led. A pointless remark, as Winston wants nothing to do with him. To add insult to injury, the latest Roy Morgan poll has the left nine points behind the right. Labour is on just 25.5 per cent. The Opportunity Party is on eight per cent (hard to believe), so we know where their votes are coming from.
Christopher Luxon, unsurprisingly, felt compelled to comment and have a chat with a man old enough to be his father. I’m not sure what ‘dad’, who won’t apologise, would have thought of the conversation. At least Luxon resisted calls from other woke MPs to sack him. In a touch of irony the prime minister himself is taking a hot shower over remarks to a business audience telling them to stop adopting “a child-adult relationship” when dealing with government. A poor choice of words maybe but those in attendance should have recognised the statement for what it was meant to be. Luxon, being the woke person he is, issued what he sees as the required grovelling apology.
So, there is the generational divide. No apology from Peters but Luxon feels the need to do so. Why?
Woke and political correctness seem to work in tandem with the younger generation. This ridiculous carry-on needs to be stamped out. You can’t speak your mind for fear of some easily offended snowflake running off to some useless outfit like the Human Rights Commission. That agency needs to be abolished, along with the Waitangi Tribunal, the Māori seats, and RNZ, the far-left broadcasting outlet we are forced to fund. These institutions are a pox on our society. They serve no useful purpose beyond causing endless division.
This political correctness nonsense is rife with the ridiculous use of te Reo in the names of government departments and street signs where the Māori name often takes precedence over the English name. We are an English speaking country.
Those of us who were born immediately post war give this sort of nonsense short shrift. We grew up in a time when you could speak your mind, a handshake meant your word and was a bond of integrity, when everybody got on with everybody else in an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust and when you could leave the house without having to lock the door. Nowadays, amongst all the wokeness and political correctness – much of it coming from people who need to grow a spine – we not only have to lock our doors but apparently our mouths as well.
Note to the prime minister. This doesn’t sit well with many who are or were National voters. We want someone who systematically dismantles wokeness and political correctness, DEI, idiotic gender and social issues and all other nonsensical ideology. Someone fiercely patriotic who leaves you in no doubt what he stands for. That person would get my vote. Someone who CALLS A SPADE A SPADE.
