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    Re: Jacinda Ardern resigns - .you just beat me to it Archived Message

    Posted by John Monro on January 19, 2023, 3:28 am, in reply to "She's gawn..."

    Yes, I'm pretty sad about this, as I know Jacinda personally, as a good friend of one of my daughters. Indeed they caught up just the other week as my daughter returned to NZ for a holiday and family get together. A truly decent person, she hopes she's been "kind" in her premiership. Dealing with Covid and the horrible events in Christchurch she was outstanding and gained a truly remarkable overall majority in the last election. But I have to say I have been increasingly disappointed by her leadership and Labour's direction. That majority gave her a chance to introduced some truly radical socialist policies (recall, she was President at one time of the International Youth Socialist movement) but she instead stated she wanted to act with consensus and incrementally. Sorry, that doesn't work. You can't be "kind" or "incremental" to the eggs when you make an omelette. Major issues of child poverty, huge inequality, seriously unaffordable housing, student debt, horrendous inflation taxation reform, failing to roll back the neoliberal agenda and global warming were only beginning to be addressed or policies that were introduced merely embroidered the hems of these difficulties. - Labour never seemed able to get on top of them. Whether that was her failing of leadership or serious unresolvable stasis in the Labour caucus, I don't know. She can quote the things she has done, and fair enough, there are a number of socially useful policies, and Labour have been able to persuade Maori that she is a good representative for them. but there has been too little effective effort to alter the fundamentals. Yes, with global warming at least she and Labour are taking this more seriously but actually getting significant changes to our emissions has been minimal, if any at all, so far, and that's after over five years of premiership. Her departure givesa huge opening for more right wing fundamentalism in NZ.

    Having stated my disappointments, don't get me wrong, she has been a wonderful new breath of decent leadership, and the fact that to anyone in National and Act, right wing parties, she was the socialist she-devil incarnate pretty well proves my point. In addition he's had to suffer the most horrible continuous personal abuse (some related to outlandish conspiracy theories and Covid immunisation - recall the protests in Parliament) and disgusting misogyny as a woman, as a left-winger, as a supporter of Maori and Islanders and other cultures. I understand from another anonymous source that persistent personal abuse from strangers when she was on holiday over Christmas was the last straw. As a sensitive woman, a partner, a mother - a family person with many good friends - her prime ministerial life and supposed privilege was no longer worth the candle.

    And that pretty well sums up our modern predicament everywhere.

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