OPINION
As Chris Hipkins sits in the rubble of a Labour Government ejected in the biggest swing in our history, I wonder what he is thinking. Presumably he is desperately trying to think of something or someone to blame (it’s not like HE could be in any way responsible); no doubt it will be ‘racism’ or similar twaddle. Expect tears of anger and sickening revulsion from the smartypants commentators in the next few days at how truly evil their fellow countrymen are.
If you think there is something ‘new’ taking place, there isn’t – Bill Rowling was not only expecting to win but, after 1975, was in denial about losing. A truly breathtaking disconnect from reality.
The seeds of Labour’s defeat were sown years ago: their arrogance, their doctrinaire adherence to failed policies and ideology, their rush to implement a series of measures that shocked and confused the man in the street on one hand, and reminded them why neither they nor their parents before them were Labour voters, on the other.
Support for the Labour party during my lifetime has always been illusory, seldom – and even then just barely – entering the 40s; it was more that the left-wing media put Labour politicians on television every night, which kept them alive. The votes never really materialised.
As the world moved on, the Labour party really hasn’t. When the occasional Labour person – such as Mike Moore – who ‘got it’ emerged, they were quickly stamped out. The rich kids always preferred to ‘play socialists’ long after the game was up, and the voting public found nothing appealing. Then came 2020–23, which revealed how truly odious socialism, and the Labour politicians, are.
The madness in recent weeks of having Megan Woods, Ginny Andersen and Jan Tinetti in high-profile media appearances is a case in point. Every time they opened their mouths 10,000 voters decided to vote National; then, when they refused to accept blame for obvious failures, another 10,000 joined the first lot!
But will the Labour Party – at long last – accept reality? Accept they are the problem, rather than everyone else? I doubt it. They are welded on to their fantasy world and will continue heading down the road to irrelevancy. And we should rejoice in this; it’s been a long time coming.
Were I to ever meet Chris Hipkins – or even Ardern – the one question I’d love to ask is: “What is it that everyone in Eastern Europe, everyone in Western Europe, everyone in America, everyone in Australia, everyone in New Zealand, everyone including two communist dictators (Mikhail Gorbachev and that Chinese chap in the ’70s) can see that you can’t?” They’ll probably respond with pure disgust that I am so morally repugnant as not to see the perfect world they tried to create. And that sums up Labour’s problem and why it’s less than a decade from ceasing to exist. Good riddance.