The Red Queen featured in worldwide news last Monday when The New York Times reported that Ardern had finally ‘Given up the Ghost’ on her ‘Elimination Strategy’ for Covid 19. Similar reports appeared in the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail. The ‘Fairy Princess’ had to leave the ball early or she would have turned into ‘Cinderella’ at midnight and her coach would have turned into a pumpkin.

Has the clock struck midnight for Jacinderella? Digital Image: Lushington Brady.

Speaking of ghosts, two ghosts of ‘Christmas Past’ appeared. One was Winston Peters, former Deputy Prime Minister, who appeared from nowhere on Newshub Nation and said he knew Harry Tam’s movements around the country, which Tam denied.

Winston was a ‘Rebel without a Cause’ but now he seems to have several. There is ‘Three Waters’, which he calls ‘Apartheid by Stealth’; the name change from New Zealand to Aotearoa; and the ‘Saliva Testing’ $60m contract, which seemed to go to the less qualified of the contractors.  Winston has smelt a rat. Now Ardern wants to appropriate the first company, the better one of the two, according to Winston, which the government did not give the original contract to.

Winston has crawled into the 21st Century by going on Facebook. ‘The boy done good’. He has achieved political name recognition ahead of David Seymour. Winston said the usual trolls are out but “I’ve got news for them, I’m not going away”. When it came to political parties, National was actually ahead of Labour on interactions, according to Finn Hogan on Newshub Nation, who knows about such things.

The other ‘Ghost’ was three times Prime Minister John Key, who Chris Trotter believes has come back to haunt the 400,000 mainly women voters from National who defected to the ‘Covid Princess’ last election. These are mainly well educated middle-class women who by rights should have been in National’s camp. They are ‘Fed-Up Fionas’ whose trips to Melbourne and Tuscany have been put on hold and who are now suffering Delta deprivation. This should be enough to drive them back to National.

Mathew Hooton on the Right thinks the Red Queen will be ‘Gone by Christmas’, and Chris Trotter on the Left doesn’t consider this a preposterous idea either. Ardern is used to being the ‘Belle of the Ball’. If it works out that she is not the ‘Fairest of them all’ then the illusion is shattered and she may capitulate. She doesn’t want to hang around just being ‘Cinderella’. She will marry her Prince Charming in Gisborne when he slips on the glass slipper and be done with it.


Bishop Brian Tamaki and another person were at the Auckland District Court on Tuesday where they pleaded not guilty to organizing a demonstration during lockdown. Steve Braunias (NZ Herald) says, “Tamaki serves the one true God”. And that is not a woman, let alone the ‘One who rides the Beast’. Tamaki will not bend the knee.
A condition of bail was that the organisers would not use the Internet, but a news item said there would be a ‘picnic’ in the Domain this Saturday which he and his wife Hannah would be attending.

Another one not bending the knee is the New Conservative co-Leader Ted Johnston who is aghast at the mandatory ‘Jacinda Jabs’ for teachers and health workers.

Take Lithuania, a small country in the EU, which has been pinged badly with mandates. A no-jab person cannot shop at a supermarket for food, only at small convenience stores where prices are higher. Definitely no shopping at any other stores, no libraries available, no dentists, no schools, and no repairmen allowed. No jobs of course and not able to apply for other jobs.

On the other hand, the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, is not having any of it and has banned mandatory jabs for Covid 19.


The media this week have had their ‘Pennyworth’, not always complimentary to the government. Ryan on the AM show thinks MPs should get a “rocket up the jacksie” and take a pay cut as small businesses have been forced into bankruptcy through the lockdown. Obviously, he has not drunk the same amount of the Red Queen’s ‘Kindness Kool’ as other media.

Kerre McIvor (HOS) thinks the government should subsidize gang members to watch Netflix rather than deliver drugs.

Madeleine Chapman at the Spinoff has been making fun of the government’s messaging disasters, especially the ‘Pee Wee’ one.

This leads me to a short quiz about your knowledge of the above subject. This is NOT a Covid announcement, in case there is any confusion. Please answer the best you can.

If you were picnicking at a friend or relative’s house in their garden outside and wanted to pee. Would you?

(A)  Use the toilet in the house. (Not allowed)
(B)  Use public toilets. (Not open)
(C)  Hold onto pee in your bladder. (Unhealthy)

If you are unable to use any of the above options please use (D) Default Position: Pee at end of the garden.


Never voted Labour, Greens, Act or Maori Party. Spent time overseas, mainly in the U.K. Come Judgement Day, want to say I did “something” rather than “nothing”. Love Trump. Love old movies.