Betteridge’s Law of Headlines states that, any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word “no”. But everyone knows that laws are made to be, if not broken, then at least bent a little.
So, when Amy Brooke asks, Is Jacinda Ardern megalomanic? the answer is: at least a bit.
We know that not only does New Zealand’s Prime Minister have what has been described as libido dominandi, a desire for power, she is also presiding over the most incompetent, destructive government in our history. Its thoroughly anti-democratic attacks on that vital principle of equality for all, under the law, show no sign of diminishing.
Jacinda Ardern was bad enough before she capitalised on the covid panic and won an election that removed any handbrakes to her utopian determination to inflict “the greater good” on New Zealand. New Zealanders are not, of course, alone in experiencing buyer’s regret: voters in several Australian states are having plenty of time to repent their panic-driven rush to deliver absolute power to leftist premiers. With the brakes off, the jackboots were put on.
Which should have surprised no-one.
Ardern’s early ambition to become President of the International Union of Socialist Youth suggests she is drawn to power as a moth to flame. However, had it not been for NZ First joining Labour and the Greens, her low polling would never have seen her become Prime Minister. With Covid then hitting the country, her far from academic degree, basically focusing on obtaining political skills, stood her in good stead while projecting her mantra of kindness and well-being.
The results have been as devastating as they were predictable.
Like so many of the Left, her understanding of how the wheels of business, including vital small businesses, drive the viability of any economy appears non-existent. Her limited experience of employment before Parliament, both as a former DJ and wrapping fish and chips, may well explain not only her apparent indifference to the collapse of so many thousands of businesses as a result of her government’s policies during the pandemic – but also the hardships faced by employers, as well as employees.
Many of the former, trying to save their businesses and to keep supporting their employees, are close to ruin, threatened by yet another tax and income insurance scheme, an extra burden on employers already having to contribute in other ways to their employees.
It will also take away as ‘a job tax’ part of their income from workers struggling with rocketing food prices; inflation growing at twice the rate of wage increases; petrol prices above $3 a litre; and rising rents. So many have also lost hope of eventually being able to own their own homes. Moreover, as former National party finance minister Steven Joyce points out, our hard-left government is apparently intent on destroying productivity. He asks what planet we would need to be on to saddle small businesses with a six-month, minimum wage increase – plus the spectre of centralised wage negotiations. The answer is Planet Jacinda.
Socialists eventually run out of other people’s money, and even Jacinda’s $55m of payola to the mainstream media has to lose its spell, eventually.
New Zealanders are suffering under a government viewed as further to the left of socialism and financially incompetent, with Ardern regarded as sly and evasive when it comes to answering questions she dislikes. In spite of her charm offensive, more media are risking her displeasure by voicing concern about the inappropriateness of so many of the control policies widely imposed.
The cocoon mentality of the elite — the “middle-class Wellington Marxists” as Martyn Bradbury calls them — is especially demonstrated by their uncomprehending outrage that so many ordinary people dared protest against their secular saint.
Disgracefully, neither Ardern, nor National’s leader Christopher Luxon condescended to talk to those New Zealanders wanting their concerns to be heard. MPs simply watched from Parliament’s windows. Ardern hid away, merely ostentatiously touring Parliament grounds to inspect damage when the protestors were finally moved on, after three weeks […]
Moreover, when recently forced to address the unpopularity of vaccine mandates, and asked if this was a response to the protesters she replied, ‘Absolutely not,’ laying out her reasoning, but adding ‘not because you demanded it’. Her arrogance was stunning […]
So much for the constant invoking of kindness and well-being, falling so readily from the lips of our leader. One thing was constantly obvious – Arden’s antipathy to those worried enough to voice their concerns. She simply told them to go away.
Spectator Australia
Let them eat mandates, indeed.