OPINION


The worst thing about this worst government in my lived experience, is the way they have emboldened the zealots: the authoritarians of the hard left who believe, who have always believed, that they and they alone know what’s good for us, and that only they decide what’s good for us.

Personal choice doesn’t matter inside their sterile disinfected one-way corridors of ideological purity, as choice competes, indeed detracts, from their Utopian Grand Vision of locust-eating, lentil supping, pedantically pedestrianised, perfect world of the future. In this perfect world Wellington’s 18,000+ smokers will be allocated five retail outlets to provide for their habit. Yes, five. For the Ministry of Authoritarian Overreach (MAO) has decided it so. And only they know what’s best.

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Don’t care about smokers and their filthy habits? Think again. MAO has plenty of other filths to pursue and, based on the outstanding success in both driving smokers crazy and underground, it will pursue, with only more zeal, the other filth. Motorists? (you mean CO2 emitters?), five fill-up points for you. Sweeties? (teeth-rotting low-nutrition garbage), five outlets for you. Alcohol? (mind-altering, violence-inducing liquid), five bottle-stores for you.

You will all be very happy, because MAO says so, and MAO is infallible, never wrong. You will! be happy, because we say so. Do you understand? Or do you qualify for re-education?

Living in Wellington idbkiwi is self-employed in a non-governmental role which suits his masochistic tendencies. He watches very little television, preferring to read or research, but still subscribes...