When the forces behind that vile man Anthony Blair seemed unstoppable and his rise to pre-eminence inevitable, the long-running satirical television programme Spitting Image ran out of steam and ceased production.
The apparent reason was that there was nothing left to satirise. The three-dimensionality of Thatcher, Foot, Kinnock, Hattersley and Owen had given way to the monochrome of John Major’s éminence grise. But while Major at least operated in two dimensions, Blair was a one-dimensional confidence trick. He dumbed down Britain, spoke in riddles, soothed with platitudes and induced mass hysteria whenever the opportunity arose. He was also a pathological liar. Does this sound like anybody we know?
With his opponents disarmed, Blair waged a savage war behind the scenes, not along the old economic interventionist lines, but in the interests of a new ‘social justice’ based on ‘ethics’. His efforts were neo-Marxist, still socialist, but above all globalist. ‘Society’ was a thing to be reviled, as was the nation-state. Replacing them were cross-border communities, defined by ethnicity and personal identity politics, along with governance by collectivism at the supra-national level by an unaccountable elite.
It is both ironic and fascinating, then, that Episode One of the newly launched Spitting Image features Jacinda Ardern, vain and supercilious, lauding it over some rather smug Labour-voting minions in a manner analogous to that of her one-time mentor Blair. The accusation against her of being boastful was deflected by the media here as an attack upon our country. That she might resemble Blair would not, of course, be regarded as a slight.
The BFD. Photoshopped image credit Pixy.
The threat to our nation depicted in the sketch comes directly from Ardern. She is cast as a narcissistic sociopath precisely because she is narcissistic, and because her ‘kind’ social policy produces dystopian results – which are both antisocial and, without a shred of guilt on Ardern’s part, disregard the harm caused. Distracted by meat pies and ginger crunch, it’s only her credulous constituents who cannot see the sinister ‘new normal’ unfolding beneath the guise of a ballooning, though supposedly ‘benevolent’, nanny state.
What we witnessed at the third leaders’ debate was the terrible ghost of 1990s UK New Labour re-emerging. A febrile Ardern served up a meal of inconsequence, re-heated from her melange of stock phrases:
- “conversations”
- “if I may”
- “the pride of knowing”
- “the team of five million”
- “all of us”
- “the idea that”
- “constantly focused”
- “work hard to”
- “I credit”
- “proud of”
- “strive”
- “together”
- “we can”
- “using our voice”
- “I believe in”
- “challenges”
- “healthy behaviours”
- “targeted”
- “influencing”
- “outcomes”
- “looking forward”.
The deck was stacked against Judith Collins because it is impossible to argue against this speciousness with logic or to speak of restraint and moderation to an audience which is behaving like a group of drunken sailors in a knocking shop. Shamefully, this is how the spectacle was framed by the wisenheimer Guardianistas at Stuff, with their stacked questions, pre-loaded opinions from Ponsonby Road, and chi-chi presentation patter.
If this reality television show is an accurate representation of New Zealand then the country has entered the same blind death spiral that was once so expertly harnessed by Blair, with Ardern now at the wheel. The People’s Prime Minister, the Blairite protégé, has truly breathed life into the proverb that there are none so blind as those who will not see.
To listen to this for an hour and a half is to immerse oneself in the true horror of the void. The only way for Collins to combat this echo-chamber of the dead is to make Ardern engage as an adult, out in the open, within the proper realm of ideas, on facts and hard policy.
The National party’s primary tool within the ‘realm of ideas’ ought to be its foundational principles, which are:
“To promote good citizenship and self-reliance; to combat communism and socialism; to maintain freedom of contract; to encourage private enterprise; to safeguard individual rights and the privilege of ownership; to oppose interference by the State in business, and State control of industry.”
We never hear, in debates or in the media generally, anything about these principles. It would be refreshing to hear the National party leadership speak of the benefits of self-reliance, for example. And when Ardern, as she is wont to do, bribes special interest groups with subsidies and hush money, the cry should go out that this is both corruption and socialism. We need to hear much more about the corrupting influence of both state control and socialism on people’s lives.
Tax cuts therefore are not only good because they put money back into the economy, but because they promote a society built on individual freedom. Individuals generally make more efficient and informed spending choices than does government, and Ardern’s Mary Poppins administration will cost us dearly.
The Nats cannot win on tax-and-spend because they will always tax and spend less than the current lot. They cannot win on the climate hoax so long as they persist with Labour’s and the Greens’ delusion, because their climate policy offering will always be seen as second-best. What Judith needs to say is that ‘the science’ shows little evidence of anthropogenic, or man-made, contributions to climate change or global warming. She should, quoting US journalist Robert Bryce, say that what New Zealand needs is cheap, abundant energy, and end the discussion there.
Real ‘fairness’ and social equity – where we all participate as equal citizens – comes from strong law and order. The marijuana referendum needs to be more strongly linked to this. No mention has been made so far of marijuana’s link to mental health – although mental health has been discussed throughout the campaign – and this is a tragic missed opportunity.
Tax cuts create jobs. We need jobs and we need to create wealth. Wealth has been unjustifiably vilified throughout this whole episode. Without it the nation is living off government largesse, borrowed billions, slogans and pipe dreams.
The centre-right needs a logic break-through. The shine eventually wore off Blair, but it took three election cycles.
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