OPINION
I know it, you know it, the polls are telling us the majority of the rest of the voters know it. Know what, I hear you ask. The left doesn’t deserve our respect. The numbers in both the Roy Morgan and the Curia polls show they have indeed lost it. Their behaviour on so many fronts is an abomination. It is an affront to all voters, even the ones who voted for them. It is a mystery to me, and probably to you too, as to why people vote for parties of such intellectual woefulness.
The Greens are not in Parliament for the economic good of the country. They would put forward an argument that their environmental policies are designed to do just that. The problem is that in their eagerness to be seen to be leading the world in this area, they continue to put the cart before the horse. If the country were to implement the policies they want at the speed they want then we would be in even worse economic shape. The country is simply not in a position to do it.
On the one hand, they want their environmental policies implemented at huge economic cost while on the other hand they want billions spent on welfare. Common sense, never mind intellectual cognisance, tells you it can’t be done. You can’t ideologically wreck the economy on the one hand and expect to increase the welfare spend by billions on the other. That scenario doesn’t add up. To be fair, one now “supporter” of the party found a way to gain while avoiding monetary pain.
Which brings me to the point of the alleged misdemeanour. Again, like their rationale on policies and spend, on this matter they came up short. Their handling of it from start to finish was abysmal. Initially, while aware of it, they sat on the information rather than bringing it to public notice and doing their best to clear the matter up as quickly as possible. This behaviour was tantamount to hiding it.
Then, when the lady in question returned from holiday (why would the party condone her leaving the country) and finally fell on her sword, the two co-leaders performed a very amateurish ham-fisted attempt at contriteness. The entire monologue from James Shaw was about the poor suspected thief. We heard what a wonderful person she was, and what a wonderful contribution she had made to politics, the country and human rights. You would have thought she was the victim.
Golriz Ghahraman appears to have a somewhat warped view of human rights. Is her behaviour a human right? Is what she is accused of a human right? Is charging for an item of clothing not a human right? Finally, playing the mental health card might be a human right but we are not falling for it. No apologies to the stores involved from her or the party. Scotties must be thinking she’s got off scot-free.
And the Maori Party. Prancing around in Parliament like the stone age people they so like to reflect on, doesn’t engender any sort of respect. They may not have moved on from 1840 but the rest of the country has. The Maori Battalion gave rise to huge amounts of respect around the globe for their daring and bravery in the face of the enemy. What did the world see last year? They witnessed some young thing cavorting around the highest institution in the land like she was suffering from some sort of derangement syndrome.
Then, as I have mentioned in previous posts, there’s that fella in the cowboy hat. There’s a bit of irony in his wearing this particular piece of decoration. (Come to think of it, he is all about decoration.) The cowboy hat is an invention of the white man, a gentleman by the name of J B Stetson in 1865. The one Mr Waititi wears is a far cry from that. Research tells me that today the cowboy hat has become as much a part of fashion as it has function. If it’s fashion I trust he paid for it. If Parliament doesn’t have a dress code it needs one. If it does the Speaker should implement it otherwise respect will be gone there also.
We now come to the Labour Party. Being the largest party of the three on the left they should deserve respect but unfortunately they have yet to earn it following their election debacle. Showing pity is a possibility but, to be honest, even that’s difficult. For the main opposition party they lack the basic requirement: intelligence. That might sound harsh but, after six years, the current state of the country proves it.
The polls reflect it. Curia found approximately 54.7 per cent of the respondents thought National better managers of the economy compared to 20.1 per cent for Labour. National is ahead on all major voting issues including the country heading in the right direction. Grant Robertson and Labour should be taking this on board. Respect won’t return until they do. Change though is unlikely to happen while the Unions remain their paymasters and they are saddled with the other two above.
The conclusion cannot be other than that the left is in for a year to forget. According to the polls Hipkins is a disaster but replacing one disaster with another won’t solve a thing. They desperately need persons of intellect but finding them is akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. Nobody of ability is going to be attracted to a bunch of political degenerates. Rather than the House of Representatives the Labour Party looks more suited to a House of Refuge. Welcome to the political wilderness.