The only people who think level 3 is being observed in Auckland must be the Labour Government and its health advisors. The number of hospitalisations and deaths predicted if we loosen up were about the same as the cars that passed me on my 45-minute walk in rural east Auckland – 550. Level 3 is simply not being observed except at the boundary checkpoints. Even then people can still go to their bach at Omaha for the weekend as it is within the Auckland boundary.
Two thousand turned up to the Auckland Domain to protest democracy dying in this country. You’re not supposed to talk to your neighbour, Ardern says, yet everyone else appears to be getting on with life as they should: except for gang members, of course. Hundreds are attending funerals, blocking roads and disobeying the law. Any arrests, you might reasonably ask? Nope, just handouts. The Police are politely asking them to disperse, which they do, only to meet up again somewhere else. The long arm of the law should be charging itself with dereliction of duty.
The government scientists and modellers are all preaching doom and gloom. If they’re to be believed (unlike global warming which gives us about twelve years before we’re all fried), the Covid cold will get us next week. This is simply nonsense and proven so by what’s going on in the community. Level 4 was never observed properly and Level 3 even less so. With everyone out and about, where are the high numbers they’re all talking about? Why don’t these overpaid people in their ivory towers who are still receiving their salaries step into the real world? This is the world where people are hurting. They’re hurting because their income has dried up.
Hardly ever, in all their nonsensical utterances, have I heard one of these so-called experts mention the economy. Never once have I heard them offer any solace to the people who, unlike them, are actively contributing to the wealth of this country. Everyone from the small business owner to those in hospitality and tourism and those exporters who earn valuable income for this country.
All the mainstream media reporters hardly ever refer to the damage being done to the economy. A good example was Diana Wichtel writing in the Canvas about John Key and, like many other left-wing Ardern sycophants, fixated on his North Korea remark: taken out of context of course.
These airheads really annoy me. The Seven Sharp lady whose name escapes me, offering a chocolate fish to everyone who got a jab at the weekend. She let it be known she was being very brave in making the offer without asking her boss first. According to her, he’d be in his office listening and be in a far worse mental state than if he’d caught the dreaded Delta. It’s pathetic the lengths people like her will go to for publicity. I don’t know how many chocolate fish she gave the NZ Herald but they took the bait and there she was, yet again, commandeering the Lifestyle pages.
To get back to the point. The Labour Government needs to change course. Aucklanders are over it. They’re out and about getting on with life or breaking the rules, whichever way you want to look at it. I heard on ZB that the Southern Motorway was at a standstill at various points during Friday evening. This Government can ignore the reality of what’s going on at their peril. Except it’s not just their peril, it’s the peril of the entire business community throughout the country. Shut Auckland down because of a sniffle and the rest of the country catches a cold.
You can’t close down Auckland without causing severe economic disruption. In this lockdown, the only ones hurting are those who can least afford to – business owners. Diana Wichtel and others can, deliberately or otherwise, miss the real point of Key’s utterances last weekend but he was speaking from an economic viewpoint. This country cannot stay on its current path. The longer Auckland’s borders are shut and the longer the country’s borders are shut, the more there will be an ever-steepening downward trajectory in economic performance. Business leaders are now telling the government exactly that. This is precisely why the rest of the world is now opening up.
The longer we leave it, the more Key’s description of the country as a ‘hermit kingdom’ will ring true.
The government does not understand the severity of the problem it has created. Borders must be opened and Kiwis who want to return home must be allowed that right.
National and ACT have a plan. It’s not Labour’s plan so it won’t be implemented. Hipkins called the plan an insult to Kiwis. Robertson showed his true mentality by saying that the Opposition want to give the public Covid for Christmas.
The failed elimination strategy has to go. I have a feeling the Auckland protest on Saturday was just a warm-up for the big Groundswell one in November. The polls show Ardern has dropped ten points since the election. It should be a wake-up call but it won’t be. Her agenda is all that matters.
Now Waikato is in level 3. That’s right Jacinda, keep digging.
Please share this BFD article so others can discover The BFD.