Seven people died on New Zealand roads on the weekend. That was not a headline story.
But imagine if seven people had died of the covid virus. We’d be back to full lockdown panic mode.
From the beginning, back eight months, all governments were working in the dark in dealing with the virus. The severity of responses, from full lockdown to Sweden’s relative laissez faire, were all of necessary speculative.
Intuition told me Sweden probably had it right, thus my comments on this site in early March that when it’s all done and dusted, Sweden will prove to have had it right. Increasingly in Europe that is now the received thinking.
Now and for at least five years ahead comes the enormous economic and social cost of dealing with the aftermath.
The destruction of small businesses, our major employers, will be horrific, currently masked by unprecedented money printing which obviously can’t continue.
Has the New Zealand government handled it well? Again, remember as said, they like every government were working in the dark, thus a cautionary approach was logical.
So I’d give them 8 out of 10, with two points off for infantilising the nation.
The teddy bear crap, the fat woman TV advertisement wringing her hands and in a little girl voice, simpering “Be Kind”, so too the same insulting message on our highway signs and now, the “team of 5 million” rubbish, has been cringe-making. I hope the PM will knock that nonsense on the head.
The government was one of the least experienced ever to take office and in the circumstances did well.
But I’m damn sure the key lesson they’ve gained, which past seasoned governments could tell them, as they’ve all been through it, is not to place too much weight on bureaucrats advice. By their nature bureaucrats are overly cautious individuals who as is their right, have opted for safety first careers.
The same applies to academics who have enjoyed a rare place in the media limelight and naturally want to sustain it. Their safety first salaries are paid for by the private sector, the doers and shakers, be they farmers, café proprietors, builders, manufacturers and other have-a-go types.
The virus issue is still with us but surely now with better perspective, we can cope with it and get on with life.
Talk of a vaccine is now increasingly positive and panic has no place in the government response.
Rather, all efforts must now go on the economic recovery. A punitive tax approach would be the 100% wrong decision, indeed to the contrary in which incentives to inspire the doers and shakers to climb off the canvass and start again is imperative. That is now the fresh approach being argued in Europe and it’s the right one.
It will be a time for radicalism for which Labour have a proud record, first in 1935 and again in 1985.
It’s certainly no time for conservative stodge as epitomised by National’s announcement to bail out the Tiwai smelter with virtually free electricity.
35 Comments
National has no ideas apart from do the same thing, but harder, faster, and worse for the country. The entire response was entirely one dimensional, highlighted by the academics still pushing for longer lockdowns even when there was zero covid in the country. As an overseas NZer I have watched in despair as the country hyperventilates over nothing, and pretends that large numbers of people will die, which was obviously incorrect from the time the virus was confined to China. The overseas response has been much more realistic, and will have most other countries recovering far faster than NZ who will still be hiding under the bed when the rest of the world is rebuilding.
Confined to China, you say? If only it had been confined to China, we wouldn’t be in this mess would we?
At least National’s ideas would be much better for the country – an obvious move to have those intending to travel here produce a negative test result before boarding – and we can say with absolute certainty they wouldn’t bollocks it up like the current inept mob.
I saw a Stuff article with a graphic showing all the different entities, agencies and Ministers involved in the porous quarantine fiasco. National’s single agency is certain to be less unwieldy and has a chance of succeeding where incompetence and laziness has failed us so badly.
So, exactly what I said. No new ideas, just more of the same thing, just harder and magically better? What’s the exit plan? How do we regain the 10%+ of the economy that has been obliterated by the current policies? How do we pay back the new billions of debt? How does anyone from NZ ever take an overseas business trip, let alone a holiday? How effective does the prayed for vaccine need to be before the borders can open again? Answers please, not bulls**t about how Labour isn’t doing the wrong thing hard enough.
Bob, if the Greens return they will fix the road toll overnight by banning all vehicles.
Easy !
I believe you are being extremely conservative in suggesting that it will be at least five years to deal with this disaster.
Due to the ineptitude of this government I believe you can add another 10 years to that conservative guesstimate.
This is all about politics and keeping Ardern in power.
Under the current levels ordained from the “ Pulpit of Truth “ other parties are disallowed effective electioneering.
Sir Bob, I think you may have confused NZ First (Winston) wanting to bail out the smelter.
No he hasn’t. You should be better informed before opening your mouth.
You are being very generous in awarding 8/10. Frankly I would give them 4/10. Our relative success is purely down to good luck rather than good management, Right from March their border management has been fiasco. In Level 4 people were arriving, given a pamphlet and sent on their way. They were never tracked,and despite assurances from the govt were rarely contacted. Its very fortuitous that widespread Covid did not occur.
Their financial plan seems to print money, and spend it like a drunken sailor with out any cost benefit analysis or accountability. Heaven knows what’s going to happen when the wage subsidy finishes. They don’t seem to have any plan for when this happens or any initiatives to jump start the economy. We need tourists and we need international students. Billions of dollars are at stake.
It’s all very well to say that they were operating in the dark. However there were a number of countries in Asia who had the blueprint. Take Taiwan, never had a lockdown, economy remained open, projected to have a positive GDP figure this year. They had a multi faceted approach to Covid. Their Vice president was an epidemiologist and used those skills to home Taiwan’s response. Result population 24 million, 488 cases, deaths 7. I would add that over 1 million people returned home from mainland China during this time.
Their contact tracing system was incredibly sophisticated and rigorously policed. Turn off your phone and you would be visited within half an hour. Could not New Zealand have looked at this and tried to imitate some of the methodology. Frankly comparing Taiwan’s response to New Zealand’s is like comparing a Rolls Royce to an aging Ford Escort.
Taiwan, and South Korea and Vietnam ignored the WHO’s early advice and shut their borders to China while leaders in the rest of the world were too scared of being called “waaacist” if they did so. China’s neighbours tend to be once bitten, twice shy on the subject of pandemics starting there.
I agree that 8/10 is far too generous. Our particular circumstances (summer, low population density, predominantly suburban housing, etc) meant that not only could we get lucky with even a completely incompetent administration, we were the last country in the world to require the damage of the hardest lockdown in the world. If people like Sir Bob, and Don Brash, and Rodney Hide, and myself intuitively knew this, and it has been proved correct now, then it is a travesty that the world’s most powerful “experts” kow-towed to by everyone and used as the benchmark for censoring other views (by Bog Tech) were WRONG. The WHO has been given all-powerful status in dictating how this virus is to be understood, and they have been wrong again and again. And they are STILL wrong on possibly the most vital point: that it spreads primarily by aerosols rather than “contact” and “droplets”.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/07/why-arent-we-talking-more-about-airborne-transmission/614737/
“…in Japan, researchers took short-range aerosol transmission seriously from the start, and focused on the few transmission events that spread the disease to large numbers of people at once. Cowling, of Hong Kong University, told me the same thing: He considers short-range aerosols and super-spreader events to be key to the spread of COVID-19. Japan was expected to fail by many, as it implemented an unconventional response, bucking WHO guidelines, eschewing widespread testing, and forcing few formal lockdowns. However, Japan masked up early, focused on super-spreader events (a strategy it calls “cluster busting”), and, crucially, trained its public to focus on avoiding the three C’s—closed spaces, crowded places, and close conversations. In other words, exactly the places where airborne transmission and aerosols could pose a risk. The Japanese were advised not to talk on the subway, where windows were kept open. They also developed guidelines that included the importance of ventilation in many different settings, such as bars, restaurants, and gyms. Six months later, despite having some of the earliest outbreaks, ultra-dense cities, and one of the oldest populations in the world, Japan has had about 1,000 COVID-19 deaths total—which is how many the United States often has in a single day. Hong Kong, a similarly dense and subway-dependent city, has had only 24 deaths…”
The fact that hundreds of well qualified experts all over the world have been fighting the WHO orthodoxy on this all along, should make humanity wake up to the folly of empowering a narrow cabal of “experts” and shutting all other voices out when there is so much at stake. Again, by mid April there were polymaths with good intuitions picking that only aerosol transmission indoors could explain the seemingly random patterns in which this “pandemic” broke out around the world. But everyone was obsessed with claiming their favorite politicians were responsible for good outcomes and their hated politicians were responsible for bad ones, no matter how much reality was tortured in the process.
The smartest guy I have discovered on these points is the Dutch mathematician Maurice de Hond, who was arguing on his website since late March, from all the evidence, that the WHO was wrong to dismiss aerosols. As Sherlock Holmes was wont to say, it is “elementary” if you look at the evidence in the right way.
Indeed a lot of what you say in this post has appeared to correct for months, if not even since nearly the beginning.
Whilst I accept that we were navigating un-chartered waters, I believe that a score of 8/10 is extraordinarily generous for this government’s handling of the virus. Notwithstanding the myopic ‘health at all costs’ approach, the bit that really bugs me is the patronising & condescending delivery from Comrade Cindy. Whilst I suspect her initial intentions were valid, the power adrenaline rush has infected her mind to the point where we are all to be treated as naughty school children with a ‘do this or else’ mentality. I’m genuinely concerned about the economic consequences that we & future generations are now lumped with, due to the immaturity and soiled thinking of those at the top. At least a dash of unemployment and recessionary times just ahead of the election should convert the fence-sitters to let the adults have a go.
” The Incredible Sulk”…Give that man ( Judith Collins’ husband ) a medal !!
Eight out of Ten for NZ’s CV19 response – nice one Sir Robert. That’s 80% – is that a B+ or A- in our Old-School grades remaining sadly only in use in Universities? I commend you for having the ability to change your mind when the facts change! Good man! I hope others follow your example but many, I fear will fall back on their Led Zep past and the boring repetitions of their throaty cigar and port affected voices will remain unchanged. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpm-7WX_S68
I guess Australia taught you all that we did need our lock-down. Sweden’s way? Well if we don’t find a better way to combat CV19 than lock-downs to prevent spread – and a very good vaccine seems like our only hope aside from a flu-virus-only-eating super-bacteria – then we have no choice but to follow the Swedes. Which seems quite likely given the almost total lack of success we have had in producing a really effective vaccine for even common garden type (but constantly morphing) flus that kill our weakest every year…but in my view we still need to keep protecting our most vulnerable if we are to retain our humanity; the economic cost to NZ is less important. So far.
I disagree that any rise in suicides in NZ is down to CV19. And any rise seems to merely be un-proven gossip by scare-mongers to me or do I need a link to a good source of facts? Yes help me out with a link here please if you can but don’t waste my time on un-confirmed internet gossip. Official figures for NZ please. I’m far too busy earning a living to find this stuff myself. (But yes, you’re right – my ego drives me to waste my time on this blog, same as the rest of you, right?).
Anyway suicides in my experienced view are more due to the evils of modern society where the almighty dollar has come to have an increasingly god-like influence on each successive generation. When marketing is more important than the true merits of any product then we are in trouble. This trouble is amply illustrated by the fact that in my early youth big global names advertised by giving away T-shirts and stickers and the like but now they sell the same items at wildly inflated prices – “The Brand” has literally become the product. Which is quite insane really, but that’s where we are in the “developed” “advanced” “civilised” world of consumption and capital driven morons. And this perceived need for money is the real killer of ourselves. And of our ethics and morals. And nowhere have ethics and morals declined more rapidly and comprehensively than in the operations of commerce.
Look at lawyers, internet giants, real estate agents, banks and many land-lords operating as if their clients owe them their wealth. Few have earned their gains by working anywhere near as hard as the South Auckland families with two parent working two jobs each to eke out a marginal living and ensure their children are educated. Rather than having to justify their fees, mark-ups and invasions of privacy for gain, banks have charged fees for services not delivered and refused to change their venal ways until the courts rule they are effectively committing fraud. I can’t count on my 10 fingers the number of times I have phoned Telecommunication companies and banks and had fees – and once an entire bill of around $400 – waived by complaining long and loud that they are not supplying me with the services I have paid for. And the poor do not have the advantages of my education and basic knowledge of law and legal processes so they just pay up and get literally ripped off time and time again. I also believe that if we became less reliant on the “trappings of wealth” – great phrase that by the way, but it’s probably outdated in today’s western world – then suicide would become less fashionable among the young. And copy-cat suicides prove that taking one’s life can be a life-style choice if you’ll pardon the very black unintentional pun…
NZ is a place where no-one need starve to death and when I am King I will make all gummint-paid benefits, including pensions, dependent on the beneficiary successfully growing a vegetable garden sufficient to supply their whole household with veggies for at least two meals a week. Apart from the health benefits of good eating and the saving on the green grocer’s bill this would have the additional effect of an instant increase in the sense of well-being of the grower; all who have nurtured a seed to adult-hood will agree the mental health benefits from growing things is at least as valuable as the enjoyment of the fruits of the labour of we gardeners. I’d make prisoners do the same or cut off their TV and PC use and ban them from the gymnasium.
But my point is we won’t starve in NZ and few will that can survive CV19 will freeze to death in our relatively mild climate due to even dramatically reduced income. So we should continue to protect our weaker people and at the same time give Mother Nature a break from our lock-downs. I suspect the result of less money and less pollution would overall do a huge net good for the people and our planet.
Economies are, when all is said and done, a human invention designed for the fair and equitable distribution of wealth but are failing miserably in doing anything with equity or fairness in today’s world. We may just as well trade in arms as global currencies, shares and oil and other commodities for all the good we are doing for humanity…
So I’m not sure we should risk killing the elderly – who have paid more tax than almost all of us – just to keep our economy flourishing when it is clear the economy is poisoning our hearts, our souls and our planet.
To the moderator – Please try not to censor or ex-punge this post by moderation. I have never abused or broken the rules of this forum and I do hope that gently criticising our Knight with good humour is not a crime here?
Some of what you say is astute.
All context has been lost, in the assumption that any nation’s “Covid-19 deaths” are some kind of extraordinary tragedy. In contrast to real pandemics, “Covid-19 deaths” is merely a method of classifying cause of death that is even more “novel” than the virus itself. The standard approach to quantifying “flu season deaths” was to look at fluctuation in “mortality from all causes” and try to estimate how many more people “died of flu-like illnesses” than would have died anyway of their heart disease, their cancer, their existing respiratory condition, and so on. The Covid-19 virus has been faked up into a “deadly pandemic” simply by abusing the data on the existing levels of death that no-one ever thinks about. 30,000 people in NZ die anyway per year. The death rate estimated from flu and respiratory illnesses including everything from the common cold to pneumonia, is around 500 per year.
In every country that has been a “Covid-19 success story”, the “Covid-19 deaths” have not caused any recognisable increase in mortality from all causes year on year. In the so-called “disaster” countries, the increase in mortality from all causes is still only slight, and may well disappear over a longer-term rolling average treatment. The CDC in the USA has estimated that only 6% of their Covid deaths represents “excess mortality”, the other 94% were statistically deaths that were going to happen anyway. Covid-19 even the way it is being classified, has hovered around 20th place for “causes of death” globally.
There are such obvious correlations with climate, density, built environment, cultural habits and so on, that it is absurd to assume that a rural US State was ever going to be like New York, or that NZ was ever going to be like Northern Italy. Even Southern Italy was not like Northern Italy, and still isn’t. And if you weren’t going to be like Northern Italy, Covid-19 was NOT EVER going to cause “EXCESS mortality”. The people who argue against South Dakota (no lockdown) because “they had 167 Covid deaths that they could have prevented with NZ’s approach” have completely lost their marbles about “people dying anyway” of SOMETHING in flu season!
The fact that NZ has ended up with reduced mortality from all causes is evidence that our environment is extremely benign, so with all the vigilance and regulation, we have managed to eliminate even many of the normal flu season deaths – THIS YEAR. So do we go back into a panicked lockdown every time the 99 year olds we saved from dying at 98, do die anyway? This is not how the social contract works. How many people aged from a few months upwards, might lose a few weeks, months, years or decades of life because of lockdowns? We won’t ever bother to identify this. The same idiots for whom hard socialism has an appeal because to their minds there are no downside costs, see no downside costs – in actual premature mortality – from hard lockdowns. In both cases, it is an utter inability to grasp “how the world works”.
Best summation yet I’ve read yet of the C19 reality. I would like to see statistics that compare the death rate when no co-morbidities exist to the average annual flu death rate. I suspect that the rates would in fact be very similar.
I believe that much of the C19 hysteria in America has been whipped up by the nutty Democrats and the MSM in another (probably failing) attempt to bring down their nemesis, President Trump, after their Russia-gate b/s and impeachment b/s failed miserably.
Interesting that you drone on page after page while gleefully admitting that you can’t be bothered to actually find out any facts. Are you by any chance a member of Parliament? If not then perhaps you have found your true calling.
MP Ha ha John Stephens – you’ve got to be kidding. I don’t hide behind a pseudonym my friend.
Oh, and thank you for your interest – but will you please be so kind as to tell me where I can find the up to date facts telling me how many suicides are caused by CV19 ?
Yes that’s all very well, but socialism – which is what you’re advocating, even if you’re unaware of it – has been tried numerous times before and failed every single time. Economies are “designed for the fair and equitable distribution of wealth..” no they are not.
“An economy is the large set of inter-related production and consumption activities that aid in determining how scarce resources are allocated. In an economy, the production and consumption of goods and services are used to fulfill the needs of those living and operating within it.”
Wholly agree with you Bob.
More so than a lot of the commentary.
If you’re interested in learning more about the “progressive” thought, and their rationales for the lockdowns et al, Hadley Freeman is the best journalist to read.
This article from the Guardian is simply a masterpiece in candour and clarity, which I thoroughly recommend:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/22/i-dont-want-to-go-abroad-why-am-i-seething-mass-of-envy
Although Hadley is writing for a UK audience, her points also apply to New Zealand’s team of five million. Hadley is very honest about the personal issues she faces. She suffers from (amongst other ailments) eating disorders, anxiety disorders and hypochondria.
Her thoughts on the upside of lockdown are interesting:
“At last, I could feel the peace of not constantly wondering where the fun was, because I knew the answer: the fun was nowhere. I couldn’t do anything and nor could anyone else, and while of course I’d prefer everyone to be having a good time, no one having one was an acceptable alternative. I’m basically the fun communist, in that no one is allowed to have more of it than me. And, going by my memories of studying Animal Farm for GCSE, that’s how communism works.”
Now Europeans are travelling, Hadley is not so happy, as follows:
“I’m a seething mass of jealousy and judgment, and the judgment is really just jealousy felt from the moral high ground. Like I said, I don’t want to go away. I just want everyone else to be as neurotic as me.”
A democracy somehow needs to reconcile very different world views.
This nasty flu means that we are all “progressives” now.
Months ago I said on several occasions to others I’d give the government a C, crucially relative being the F for most other countries.
It’s interesting to see, despite all the minutiae, guff, and my still ‘healthy’ skepticism of the so called Swedish approach flying around, the overlaps in perspective shared.
It must be admitted a lot the talk about the Swedish approach is a bit misleading as they did undertake mitigation efforts more along the lines of what can still be relevant such as banned large gatherings, closed schools, many people working from home, bars and restaurants moving to table service, shops installed screens, and overall decreases in mobility, so one must be careful with what one means, especially as a fair share of it was bottom-up.
Once again the road death comparison is inordinately foolish, unless someone catches a road bumper next time he walks into a hospital room when visiting a friend after an accident.
The masks and most especially the testing are among the significant things needed for things to start ticking along more smoothly again. An adequate volume of cheap tests will more than make up for any pedantic anxiety about accuracy as long as they are moderately effective.
COVID is serious as any novel and unknown outbreak is and should be treated as such. The early lockdowns require no vindication. Many of the criticism fail because the virus *is* what causes the economic damage, not the measures taken as a response so a false dichotomy, and that the severity is *subject* to the measures. While it may seem irrational most people need such for comfort level sakes.
More than anything it bought time as we are still learning about the disease, improving everything from response to treatment and maybe time for vaccine.
Non-linearity of response is/has also been key like the difference between crashing a car into a brick wall once at 100 k’s or doing it at 5 k’s twenty times.
At this stage no one should be advocating lockdowns outside of extreme circumstances, rather as I said, adequate testing, using face masks, controlling borders, and squashing superspreaders.
I note you have extended out your economic aftermath projections which is probably warranted given the circumstances.
I would welcome many radical approaches, the possibly of which has made many developments for the future politically and otherwise actually invigorating for a change.
Hmmmm, off topic but try this
Interesting: type antifa.com into your browser. It takes you directly to joebiden.com
Once again Sir Bob, you’re only concentrating on Covid-19 deaths. From every death, approximately 15 people are hospitalized. Typically the people in hospital take three to six weeks to recover but some take months due to their lungs and other organs being damaged.
If you want to translate last weekend’s road toll to Covid 19 deaths, there would have been over 100 people hospitalized plus the seven that would have died so yes, full lockdown panic mode would have been the appropriate response because our health system wouldn’t be able to take the load if that pattern continued.
What the Government should be doing is making masks mandatory for everyone in the City where the cluster originated and immediately ordering the trial vaccine from Oxford University like Australia has.
Have you ever watched the TV documentaries about alien abductions?
It effects how you view E.T forever – I suspect that he was way more sinister than Mr Spielberg made out.
Anyway, the most interesting thing about these abductions for me was the profile of the victims. They are almost exclusively chubby women, in their middle age, divorced, and from a God forsaken flyover State in the USA.
Presumably, the aliens can beam up and gang probe anyone from our eight billion or so global community, but they have a clear proclivity for sad, dumpy, middle aged women. Twenty year old hot chicks presumably don’t do it for Mr Reptilian. So be it. I have no idea why this is the case…
What does this have to do with the price of bats in China?
Well, I was watching interviews regarding the long term effects of this nasty flu. There were many cases where there was no actual lasting organ damage, but the victims were suffering mysterious tooth aches and back pain six months after the virus had left their body.
Here’s the thing. The victims of these long term virus were the same women that were the victims of alien abduction. I don’t mean that they were the same people literally – just that their profile was exactly the same. This struck me as an amazing coincidence, if indeed it is a coincidence.
So what is the causation that explains this clear correlation?
Conspiracy theories are everywhere at the moment. I’ve always thought that David Icke is a Holocaust denying nut job. However, I should keep an open mind. Does his Reptilians theory predict that aliens are bullying these unfortunate middle aged divorcees?
The truth is out there…
Thank God for the teddy bears picnic that helped save the nation in crisis.
They handled it well given the resources they had at the time …. however they should never have been grossly under resourced to start with. It was more a forced lockdown than choice ,
140 odd icu beds , no idea how much ppe was around and a lot was out of date . Ventilators ? What ventilators ? Bare minimum , test kits ? What test kits? Need all the symptoms , that will slow them up ….. 5/10 for me , shd hv seen it coming and got prepared
They handled it well given the resources they had at the time …. however they should never have been grossly under resourced to start with. It was more a forced lockdown than choice ,
140 odd icu beds , no idea how much ppe was around and a lot was out of date . Ventilators ? What ventilators ? Bare minimum , test kits ? What test kits? Need all the symptoms , that will slow them up ….. 5/10 for me , shd hv seen it coming and got prepared
You’re so close to these politicians that I wonder if there’s a conflict of interest, Bob. You are irrationally generous to these people.
The ‘reasonable cautionary’ approach died when the data started coming in. We should have been out of Level-4 lockdown after 2 weeks, with a cautiously open border. The difference is politics and a prime minister that doesn’t have the mind to question officialdom (in other words, not cut out for her job. Sorry).
This same prime minister is making sure the election is all about the bug. Her own words: “This is a COVID election”. Disgusting. Dealing with the bug is academic now, at least without political distortions. The honest election needs to be all about the economy. Yet our prime minister is doing everything she can to not go there.
She wants us to vote in fear, and then she will land on us whatever (possibly socialist) bullshit she wants, over the next three years. And like with the bug – there will be no debate. It will be Jacinda’s way.
I give it 2 out of 10. And I’m being generous, too.
Agree. The only shocking aspect to me is how amenable the populace is to all this. They LOVE it, this infantalism as Bob says…2 points off, so 6/10 really. Everyone wants to be tucked up in bed by PM Nanny Ardern. Shocked I am.
Covid will get Labour re-elected this year, and in 3 years time, the economy will get them booted out. But by then Cindy will be living the good life in New York with NZ historians (98% left-wingers) climbing over each other to compose grand texts of how she was ‘one of the greatest of all-time world leaders.’ Painful.
I think that’s a very generous rating Bob . Mine would be more like 3 out of 10 If they had followed the WHO warnings to shut the boarders 3 weeks before they did, then we would not have needed a lockdown at all Kiwis returning home were not tested at all , just told to go and self isolate and.helped spread the virus around the country
Then we went into a severe lockdown for 5 weeks, where as in Australia , the much milder and less damaging economically lockdown, did just as well as we did Being the most isolated country in the world with a small population, made it the easiest country in the world to get rid of the virus
When we opened our boarders after spending 50 billion or 22% of our GDP on fighting Covid, we insisted on managed isolation for two weeks ,and let people go ,again without testing them There are several hundred who were tested and a miracle that the virus took so long to have a community transmission
Then there is the slackness at the boarder control Why did the government not work out this would happen with easy going islanders the main security workers entrusted In this very important job We had a 50 billion interest in making sure it was done correctly
And now Covid is back in the community What a surprise? And Auckland in lockdown again and the rest in an annoying milder version
Few have the courage to state this has been a shambles The media are desperate for a Jacinda labour led government again, as she’s a celebrity politician and without Winston to act as her handbrake, she bring us into this wonderful socialist utopia Well that will take a generation to recover from and is far more damaging than the virus
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-01/tony-abbott-urges-against-coronavirus-restrictions-uk-covid-19/12619264
8/10? that score should have daddy buying a sports car for his girl….I don’t think we are anywhere near that. I’m more in agreement with the 2 and 3 posted here. Everyone realizes right, that unless we get some significant shift in the political landscape then the colour of the party won’t mean anything, it’ll be political ground hog day. Labour, National, NZ first and Greens are not significantly different from each other to make a significant difference in actual outcomes across a broad range of issues. They increasingly look like outmoded dinosaurs. I will not be voting for any one of them, they are all failed entities and do not deliver what they promise to deliver, and are not transparent or honest, career politicians, why would you shoot yourself in the foot? Look after number one first. Is there a viable alternative? I think there is and I’m gonna vote for em, call me a numpty if you like, but the Billy TK and JL Ross lead out fit are the only ones that tick every box for me….and that never happens, there’s always something you don’t stand for but reluctantly go along with, with the other parties, but for me not with this new kid. Can they really deliver? I mean financial governance is probably the closest thing to everyone’s heart, that’s where the fear is……what about my money. There is no shortage of financially literate experts in this country. What we need is a set of politicians who actually genuinely love this country and lead with intelligence. Experts can be sought in every field required. We don’t have that now, things can only get better if the current circus is sent packing. It is time for a significant change of leadership.
Surely the debacle around the ‘ Greens’ and ‘Labour’ and the $11.7m gift to a school with less than 50 students deserves mention when you say ‘dishonest’ and ‘hypocritcal’ pollies? Clearly, and its a proven fact, the greens attempted to hold labour ( and the Country) to ransom over the $11.7m. Hipkins is implicit in this disgrace-he was aware of it some time before it surfaced and was obviously hoping it would quietly disappear…well it didnt. and Judith Collins is quite rightly demanding the co leader of the greens to resign. In my mind she should also demand hipkins’ resignation.