It is a habit of mine on a Saturday morning to pick up the Weekend Herald from the local Superette. The owner is always very friendly and after a few minutes of amiable conversation I return home in fairly good humour. Sitting down with a cup of freshly brewed Yorkshire Tea (it’s the best if you like a strong cup) I begin browsing the paper. For some reason, oblivious to even myself, I start with the Canvas and then move on to the Business section where I particularly enjoy the Opinion pieces (well most of them).
One of the pieces on ANZAC Day weekend was from a diehard leftie, Mike Munro. The headline for his article was – “Luxon: Off the cuff and off the pace”. My initial reaction was what a load of rubbish. Feeling somewhat fortified by my strong brew (one needs strength to get through anything written by a leftie) I began to read. To be fair to Mike he did attempt to be balanced. Reading between the lines though I picked up a good dollop of anxiety that Luxon will be more than a match for his beloved Jacinda come election time.
His article of course gives quite the opposite impression if taken at face value. Mike is trying to plant considerable doubt into the reader’s mind as to whether an accident-prone Luxon has the wherewithal to supplant Jacinda Ardern. Mike muses that what National strategists will be worried by already is how Luxon’s propensity to make gaffes will play out in election year and in the Leaders’ Debates. He says, and to an extent, I agree, it is during the debates when a lot of voters make up their minds as to who is fit to govern.
However, and I’m sure Mike knows this, with increasingly rocky economic times between now and the election a large slice of the voting population will already have made up their minds.
Historically voters tend to go towards National in tough economic times as they are regarded as being better managers of the economy. If Mike had listened to what Luxon had to say on the Herald video I mentioned in my last article it would have put the frighteners up him. There were no gaffes there and Luxon was in no doubt of what needed to be done economically immediately.
Mike analysed Luxon’s duels with Ardern in Question Time and pointed out that he appears to lack the ability to anticipate Ardern’s answers to his questions. So would anyone. The key reason for this is that she doesn’t answer them!
Mike then commented that rather than pick up on her replies he asks scripted supplementary questions. How can you pick up on a reply that bears no relation to the question? Mike also said that Luxon has chutzpah and that’s what gets him into hot water. Mike would like us to worry about Luxon’s inexperience compared to other leaders.
He says Luxon speaks quickly and thinks quickly, often in the rah rah syntax of the corporate top table – terms like outcomes, journeys, efficiencies, tasking and timeframes are sprinkled about. Mike needs to realise these are the very words that define the difference between the right and the left. These are the very words that define good governance and highlight the demonstrably poor performance of the Ardern Government which have either never heard of the words, don’t understand them or regard them as anathema to their destructive ideology.
The blunders Mike talks about are hardly the kind that would lose an election. Something about Jacinda’s red gumboots, removing subsidies on public transport (which currently hardly anyone is using) saying there are no EV utes (evidently there are) using the term “bottom feeders” (Mike prefers not to understand the context in which it was used) and cancelling Labour Day. Mike says that was greeted with alarm. By his union buddies no doubt.
Mike acknowledged however that Luxon has brought National back into the game and makes the point that many are now returning to the party. He even goes so far as to admit if an election were held today Luxon could well be Prime Minister. He then brings relief to his troubled soul by noting the election is not today and between now and when it is the gaffe-prone Luxon will continue to be off the cuff and off the pace. A more correct heading to his article would have been: “Back in the race and on the pace”.
It’s typical of those on the left to focus on the minutiae.
Reading Mike’s article I think he is very nervous about the damage Luxon might well inflict on Ardern. In the Leaders’ Debates it will be a person driven solely by a socialist ideology up against someone with a business background and a good understanding of economics. The political divide will become very apparent. With the economy by then in a disastrous state, thanks to her mate’s woeful handling of the economy, it won’t be difficult for voters to make up their minds. They’ll be voting for the man, who according to Mike Munro, is off the cuff and off the pace.