Jacinda Ardern is rattled by the ascension of Judith Collins to the leadership of the National Party.
She used a press conference yesterday to threaten to lock us down again. It does not seem to matter to her that the last lockdown was illegal.
She needed to get Judith Collins off the headlines.
Her statement about Collins’ emergence as National’s leader was utterly arrogant and condescending towards voters.
After a speech setting out how New Zealand would respond if another Covid-19 outbreak was to occur, the Prime Minister was asked about the front-page news of the day: Judith Collins.
Jacinda Ardern demurred, offering neither congratulations nor commiserations for the National Party and its new leader.
“I’m spending more time about New Zealand’s response and economic recovery from Covid-19,” Ardern said.
“I accept there will be politicking this year. I accept we have an election. But if I’m being brutally honest, my mind hasn’t been focused on that to date.”
“I absolutely accept that there is an election this year – and there is no avoiding that – but at the moment it’s taking up a bare minimum of my attention.”
How arrogant and condescending towards voters is that?
Elections are important in a vibrant democracy, but she is basically telling voters that she is much too important to bother with trivialities like pesky little elections.
It seems she has become entirely comfortable with her illegal god-like powers of lockdown.
She is barely a whisker away from despotism with her comments yesterday.
Good luck trying to enforce another lockdown. And, if she is talking about it now then you may be sure that this is just softening us all up for an attempt at another lockdown because we have community spread again.
Which means the plan to eliminate has failed.
But, hey, what’s another failure when you have a long list of failures and precious little achievements after three years?
Her plans were always doomed to failure. There isn’t going to be a vaccine any time soon. We have to learn to live with the virus.
You can’t keep the economy shut forever.
We are going to have to bite the bullet and do a Sweden, even if it means some people may die. You can’t stop people from dying from everything.
It’s time to get real.
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