And what do we get after all that? We end up pretty much where we started, that’s what. The extraordinary events of yesterday down in Wellygogs with all the pollies holding hands and singing Cumbaya highlight several things.
One. Sue Bradford is totally devoid of anything resembling a brain. She has been tied in intellectual knots over the past couple of months by every one and everything that has had the misfortune to come across her. I reckon even the cleaning ladies at the Beehive have scored a few points off her. There have been so many contradictions in her stance over the whole affair that I’m not sure even she knows what she said five minutes ago let alone a couple of months back. She hasn’t got an original idea in what she tries to pass of as a head and is the most reactive person imaginable. I doubt she’d even make a very good doorstop – although the right shape she couldn’t keep still long enough.
Two. The Headmistress isn’t a bad politician. I hate every idea she has ever had but she is very good at what she does. Her playing of John Key was masterful. She has got herself out of the poo using one of his ideas and managed to a) make it seem like her own b) not demean Key and let him have a bit of kudos and c) cleared the decks for Budget time d) made sure that the smacking nonsense cannot be resurrected when it matters, next September. Even though I loathe her I have to acknowledge a master at work.
Three. John Key is not totally inept. He handled his side of the joint press conference (and how weird was that) very competently and gave a passably statesman like performance. Quite Prime Minister in waiting. No crowing, no ‘it was all my idea’. A- and shows promise.
That having been said what a total indictment of the whole political system. As I suggested above, we have ended up almost exactly where we started. The crux of the matter is that prosecution of smackers is now going to be left with police discretion and that is pretty much (bar a few legal niceties) where we are now. And how much time and money has been wasted to achieve this shining example of democracy at work? Months and squillions of dollars. East Ham. The law we are about to have is apparently much more complex than that which it replaces and all to achieve almost exactly the same thing. The full Barking.
Is this trivial nonsense what we have a Parliament for? I think not. Whilst this was going on Fisher and Paykel decided to stop making washing machines out of flax and scrimshaw and get them made in the real economic world in Thailand. They buggered off because the government has allowed a financial climate to exist that means they can’t afford to stay here. Whilst the ninth floor of the Beehive was pandering to the failed doorstop’s insanities they should really have been asking F & P what they (the government) could do to stop them axing 350 jobs and putting tom yum on the smoko menu. Oh no, not the real work of a proper government for this bunch of pratts. Farting around with social engineering is what they are about. It is totally intolerable and has to stop. We are all to blame. We should have insisted months ago that they stop rearranging the deckchairs and get the ship out of the bits of the ocean prone to ice. We are still steaming full speed ahead to the latitudes with the big numbers and I hope we don’t get to test the watertight bulkheads before we have the chance to get rid of this mob next September.
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