I feel absolutely sickened at what I am seeing at the Freedom Convoy protest in Wellington. This is not New Zealand; a young naked woman being dragged out of the crowd by her hair, thrown to the ground; four cops dealing to a slight young woman while they avoid a Mongrel Mob member; Trevor Mallard and the media pack watching on like Nero and his cohorts – watching while their country burns.
That’s the Speaker of the House in a democratic country, watching the police deal with batons and pepper spray to peaceful protesters on Parliament’s grounds.
Does it remind you of anything?
Sadly, I expect no better from the bunch of despots that make up our government. They have spent the last two years ignoring the Bill of Rights, lying to people and covering up information, and now that people are standing up to them about wanting their rights back, they behave like the good little Stasi that they really are. No surprises there.
But never in my entire life did I realise that the National Party is made up of Stasi as well.
The protesters are people like you and me: normal, law-abiding people most of whom have been jabbed, who have gone along with the mandates (or in many cases, have suffered because of them), and now they want their lives back. They are not evil people breaking the laws of the land. We have a right to protest, don’t we? Don’t we?
Christopher Luxon is, first and foremost, a businessman who ought to understand that, to be successful, he has to listen to his customers and give them what they want; otherwise, they will go elsewhere. Unfortunately, he hasn’t realised that politics is not that much different. The support of the people is something that you have to earn, and although he got some good polling on the back of being “Anyone But Jacinda”, we need more from him than that. We need him to prove that he stands up for freedom and for the upholding of human rights, and above all that he will listen to the people and try to act upon what they say.
So what did the peaceful protesters at Parliament get from our shiny new leader over the last few days?
Only this.
The police are behaving like brutes. They are attacking unarmed, peaceful protesters. “Everyone has the right to protest”, but these people are having that right taken away by an overreaching government and an opposition that doesn’t care for human rights.
This whole sorry saga is not going to end well, for either the government or the opposition.
National has lost my trust. I always thought it was the party that stood for freedom, for smaller government and for less interference in people’s lives. Clearly, it does not.
Oh, and if you think that only Labour can use standover tactics on its MPs, think again.
Maureen Pugh is the National representative for West Coast Tasman. They are a straightforward, pragmatic lot on the West Coast, as well she knows. She was right to thank the Convoy, and no doubt she meant it… but has now been told to take it down. Shameful tactics from their shiny new leader.
I never thought I would say this, but now my vote is homeless. Yes, I am the one who has always supported National: the one who told you to hold your nose and vote for them because the alternative is far worse. But if National cannot stand up for human rights, and cannot be bothered to listen to people whose lives have been needlessly ruined by the government’s mandates, they are not fit to govern.
Luxon missed a fabulous opportunity there. If he had gone out to listen to the protesters, heard their views and then asked them to please go home, it would have avoided the carnage we are seeing now. He could have done that. He should have done that. It would have shown him to be a man of the people, a prime minister in waiting, and would have garnered him literally thousands of votes in next year’s election.
Who was it who said recently – “Never underestimate National’s ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?”
Anyway, instead of earning himself literally thousands of new votes, he has confirmed what we have long said on this site: that National is the same as the other lot, but just not quite as bad. Well, that is simply not good enough. Luxon just lost the support of thousands of voters who were loyal to National. He has also just lost mine, to my total surprise. In fact, there will be only one person more surprised than me, and that is Mr Slater himself. He thought I would always be a National stalwart, no matter what. Well, so did I. I guess we were both wrong.