GUEST BLOG: Ross Meurant – DUST SETTLES ON SEYMOUR

69
1974

And it poured down on David.

At first, it was asphyxiating

Then, it was misguided

Torrential rain poured upon him, not unexpectedly from the Bastion of Left-wing philosophy:

and more.

it didn’t stop.

Social media was worse.

Seymour was drenched.

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I concede I may have missed the cacophony of support for Seymour, but if it existed, it evaded me.

The silent majority lies latent.

Finally, Seymour has been forced to defend himself.  

And, what an outstanding explanation of justification!

Whereas National has utterly failed the “silent majority” who are increasing not only annoyed, but disgusted and getting angry, at being force fed Maori culture by a myriad sleight of hand. 

Seymour’s drenching will be Seymour’s saviour.  

Not that he was going out the back door of politics, but his stand against the Labour government policy of dividing New Zealand between Maori and “The Rest” aka apartheid, will elevate him to leader of the biggest centre right party.

It’s no longer ACT by default of National; It is ACT by Seymour’s courage.

 

Ross Meurant, graduate in politics both at university and as a Member of Parliament; formerly police inspector in charge of Auckland spies; currently Honorary Consul for an African state’ Trustee and CEO of Russian owned commercial assets in New Zealand and has international business interests.

 

69 COMMENTS

  1. Compare that to Toxic who showed great maturity for a political editor of a major media organisation to call Seymour a ‘cockwomble’.

    This will, like many before backfire on the woke.

  2. Yes Ross, another over-reaction by the young and the restless. But the vaccine rollout could have been better handled.

    I’m registered with a Wellington eastern suburbs medical practice with a sizeable Samoan contingent. At no stage was I contacted by the practice re vaccination. I gather that patients who text were texted by them, I don’t text, so I heard nothing. The practice appears to be managed by Compass Health, so I assume that this was their decision. My previous GP sent regular letters, and he or his nurse phoned stuff, perhaps emailed.

    I don’t watch television so missed out on television covid publicising, got information online. There will be other persons who do not text, or go online, or who don’t read newspapers, and who would be dependent on television – if they watch it. How they are meant to book appointments isn’t clear, and they may not know how how to do so. I know one who rang the publicised telephone number and found them helpful. I was thinking about ringing it, but decided that if it was anything like the IRD or WINZ, I needed to be armed with a coffee and a good book, and prepared to hunker down for a long wait – which not everybody can do.

    The Ministry of Health seems to have relied primarily on television – which appears to have rubbed some people up the wrong way – while others watch it avidly, but not I.

    They should perhaps have considered making PHO’s the first point of info contact, and had patients – oops clients – oops customers – contacted by the health professionals who they actually know, instead of just relying on what sounds like a deliciously politically correct television exercise.

    The hysteria over Seymour ignores the fact that he’s not responsible for Maori missing out, and that this could be partly due to communication hitches.

    • Snow White
      Good conclusion in you last para! Yes the vaccine rollout could have been much better handled IMHO. By making it mandatory, simple as that. Even so, there is still NO EXCUSE for ANYONE…ANYONE missing out. The only people responsible for anyone missing out are those people themselves. You point at communication hitches; I don’t think there is a hitch. Here are two actual stats from March 2021 to back my argument:
      Stat 1: Around 97 percent of the population in New Zealand were ACTIVE mobile social media users in 2021. (That covid message has been played to death on all sorts of social media platforms, besides all other platforms).
      Stat 2: In 2021, 135.6% of the NZ population had at least one smartphone. In 2021, there were MORE mobile subscriptions than people.
      So to me, it’s all just apologist stuff, excuses! That’s down to how Jacinda and Labour operate: they patronise and pander and molly-coddle and beg and bootlick, so they can come across as ever so kind and caring. In this scenario, it is totally the wrong approach. This radical, destructive pandemic needs tough love, that means unpopular but effective leadership. Had vaxxing been made mandatory, then we could be looking at 90% vaxxed soon. Yes, there will always be a few rebels and anti-vaxxers, but most the population would follow the orders and get vaxxed asap. As it stands, we’ll be lucky to crack 65 or 70%…we’re on 30% – pathetic for what is supposed to be a 1st World nation.

      • You want to force everyone to submit to a vaccine which has not gone through proper testing procedures, which does not prevent infection, which does not prevent transmission of that illness, and which is responsible for numerous negative health outcomes including death. Your attitude is totalitarian and grossly irresponsible.

        Israel, the most vaccinated country in the world, is having a surge of cases and hopitalizations among the fully vaccinated. Let that sink in.

        • Oh dear, a saucerful of PRATTs*.

          “which does not prevent infection, ”

          The only thing that prevents infection from an infectious disease is isolation from an infected source. Vaccines prevent illness, not infection.

          As you have no clue how this vaccination thing works let me explain. Vaccination alerts the body’s immune system to a pathogen allowing it to prepare mechanisms for the body to combat any future infection swiftly and effectively. Thus it prevents subsequent illness from the infection, facilitates pathogen elimination and suppresses or even prevents ongoing transmission.

          “a vaccine which has not gone through proper testing procedures”

          As far as I understand it the COVID vaccine has been through all standard Medsafe testing and requirements.

          “which is responsible for numerous negative health outcomes including death.”

          Associated risks are well publicised and are orders of magnitude lower than risks associated with the disease. Based on such risk profile one would be foolish to choose the option (COVID 19 over vaccination) that offers a higher risk of adverse outcome or death.

          “which does not prevent transmission of that illness,”

          Actually it drastically reduces transmission.

          Israel, the most vaccinated country in the world, is having a greater surge of cases and hopitalizations among the non vaccinated compared to fully vaccinated. Let that sink in.

          * PRATT = Point Refuted A Thousand Times.

          • Big Pharma thanks you for being their useful idiot. Have some free booster shots. When you are dying from them, you can wish you had listened to people who tried to warn you.

          • It is worse than useless. Same applies to Jacinda and the rest of the government.

            Enjoy your blood clots and myocarditis.

      • The Kraut. The Bill of Rights protects us from people like you wanting to force others to be vaccinated. You swing between extremes – from accusations of mollycoddling to compulsory jabbing. All extremes are bad news. If you die because some old duck didn’t get vaccinated – that’s just life – sooner or later you gotta go and when you gotta go you gotta go.

        Nice that you feel mollycoddled though – it’s all been quite tough for some.

  3. Your blog forum is by far the best there is Martyn. You allow all sorts of views and that is a damn good thing as it never gets boring here, that’s for sure!

    • I say @ The Kraut!. How very gracious of you. But I agree – 5 minutes in here is worth a day just trying to make a point on that other space run by that best Information Technologist in the world that’s ‘moderated’ by those looking for ways to be offended – even on behalf of others.
      It may not be as dynamic in terms of an ability to respond to a discussion, but sure as shit that’s preferable to a battle of the egos.

  4. Didnt he say he did it to make fun of the woke left and labour supporters. But you can also read his actions as saying:
    vaccine clinics promoting for NZers good
    vaccine clinics promoting for Pacifica good
    vaccine clinics promoting for Maori racist

    Apart from looking at the racial connotations of this is it OK to try and sabotage any clinic trying to target the LEST VACCINED ETHINICITY in the country.

    • Yeah Nah. He wasn’t really sabotaging it, he was extending it’s good services – and trying to find a place to get vaxxed isn’t always easy. My only local and nearest jab spot said that it was for the local doctors’ patients, when I asked them.

      • Yes he was. He wanted a whole lot of new zealanders to go there to prove he loves all kiwis equally. Thus sabotaging/using up the time and places they were hoping to be filled by the most unvaccinated ethnicity in NZ. He did it on purpose knowing that the more people that went there would affect the ability to vaccinate the most unvaccinated ethnicity in NZ. And the next day when the second most unvaccinated ethnicity in NZ the Pacific community do the same thing where’s the tweet sending all the non Polynesians there.

      • If he cared about new zealanders health he should have tweeted out where all the vaccination clinics were running in Auckland. If he did that hen I would accept your argument that he was extending the good services but no he just a racist using Maori as a political toy.

  5. Didn’t I call it the day he did it?

    This was a calculated move to make an important point and get his soundbite on the News. He made fools out of all those who criticized him.

    As I’ve said before on several occasions, the real racists here are those on the Left who infantilize Maori.

    • The majority have noticed that the minority aren’t getting the same outcomes, but due to ‘infantalisation’, they feel nothing should be done. We are all one people. Carry on. Really? Right wing ‘fuck you’ dogma in action.

      • Clearly your intellect isn’t a match for your height.

        The most honest and forthright comment came from Peeni Henare who was on TV1 news last night saying in essence he’d had a hundred meetings with Maori to encourage them to get vaccinated and they can book a vaccine like anyone else.

    • So us Maori having a code to increase vaccinations must be one of the few privileges we have in our country aye Andrew. Seymour has in fact shown how low and desperate he is prepared to go to remain relevant to his voter base. Given we as a country are up against such a destructive and very dangerous variant his actions in fact could backfire. And this backfiring has the potential to further infuriate those he is trying so desperately to appease. With longer lock downs impacting on our ability to open up for business isn’t it in our countries best interest to encourage our disadvantaged groups to get vaccinated so we can quickly reopen for business. Yet his reckless actions could be detrimental to achieving this.
      Have we not learnt from the outbreak of Delta hugely impacting on PI that a one size fits all doesn’t work.

      • Covid is pa
        I like learn and I sense you can help. Seriously, no sarcasm for this one: why do you believe AKL (not rural) Maori, well-informed people, need a ‘special code’ to go and get that vaccine? What is really stopping them from wanting to protect themselves? I hope the answer is not some ‘mysterious over-politicised colonial’ type of story, it might be, but i hope it’s something more at a human level that we can all understand, like: they are scared of needles, or they don’t think it works, or they think they are bulletproof, or they think you have to pay, or they hate being in queues…or something like that. Nobody, and I have asked many a learned person including Mr Trotter, nobody can answer that question: Why do urbanised AKL Maori living in Auckland like all of us urbanised Aucklanders need a ‘special promo code’ to be vaccinated? Don’t get me wrong, I work in promotion, so when we do a sales incentive (sometimes with codes), we usual know why it needs to be done and what will make it effective. In this case however, nobody seems to have the answer? eg. If you knew they are scared of needles, you could do an encouraging campaign that says: “No Pain, No Gain.” See What I mean? So what is it???

        • The Kraut, those are very interesting questions and maybe a good subject for someone’s thesis. But the way I see it is if Te Whānau o Waipareira think it will get more people vaccinated let them get on with it. They are the ones on the front-line in West Auckland and understand the issues far better than someone in Wellington or Epsom playing politics during a war.

        • The only ads I ever liked was the old bloke/blokes on Mainland cheese and the Crunchy ones, there’s a few more, but they won peoples hearts with a combination of cultural relevance , humor, and the natural tendency of human beings to recall simpler times…ie : nostalgia.

  6. Good post Ross.
    The woke left cannot perceive outside their own breathless bubble of government, public service and media all saying the same stuff.
    Living in their parallel universe with their hubris, they will be blindsided by a public backlash to their racial and social division at some point, it’s just a matter of when.

    Seymour sticks to his principles even if it’s not popular with the PC crowd.

    When reading the talking heads around the internet it is evident there is an increasing gap now between the government spin of a corrupted media bought for $55million, and what people believe -eg: it’s more telling what is in the comment section than most articles and not coincidental that even comments are often not allowed or heavily moderated on news sites.
    But most people say nothing.

    I’m picking Seymours stand -and I’m sure it’s a coolly calculated one- will be worth votes.
    As Martyn has said, Seymour is positioning ACT as the values party for the right, while National is floundering as a meaningless Auckland money party.

  7. Again Ross you identify the political reality of the day. Seymore has the courage of his conviction to say it “how it is”
    In doing so he has demonstrated spine and real leadership potential. As you point out the the “silent majority” are aplauding him, at last someone is saying apartheid is not for us in NZ.
    The gun confiscation law took him from an Auckland annomolly to a political force in the current Parliament, the Ute tax has brought the tradies in behind him. This “stunt” has brought the silent majority behind him, and hate speech has yet to hit the mainstream!!
    David Seymore is potentialy being delivered as the next Prime Minister by Jacinda’s ill conceived policies and National’s complete ineptness.

    • Such a shame he is not a true conservative but an unorthodox neo liberal ideologue, however. Always remember his brand says what we all want to hear at the time but as soon as in power reverses his promises and carry’s on the devolution of a nation as they and their types have done so worldwide. They are never to be trusted. Ever. They have forked tongues. His pedigree is Douglas, and National carried on the banner of neo liberalism with the Bolger govt and Ruth Richardson and Jenny Shipley, – the bloodless coup lady despite promising a reversal of Douglas’s destruction.

      Why oh why can we not be more like the Scandinavians, the Nederlands and Germany? Or even the Japanese?

      Its because too many shady characters are making too much money at our expense and will fight tooth and nail to ever have the current narrative changed.

      Like it or lump it, we need another character like Muldoon, – the last of the truly conservative Keynesian leaders.

      ( And I ended up briefly and unbeknownst to me in Patu at the front of the lines, – the group that opposed Ross’s Red Squad. I simply ran as a young man to the front. I was horrified at what I witnessed and saddened for both sides. Personally vowed forever to oppose civil war from then on in for our beautiful country, its people and its way of life. My eyes still well up when I see old footage of those events.).

      I have no problems with conservatism but DO have problems with radical unorthodox and ‘treasonous’ ( in my opinion ) neo liberalism.

      • i don’t particularly disagree with anything you say. The point that I was trying to make was that Jacinda with her ill conceived and ill considered policies is delivering David Seymore an ever increasing constituency by the day. All David is doing is capitalizing on the flaws in those policies. For better or for worse.

  8. Ross, niether you nor David Seymour have justified why you consider it ok to publish messages that are not intended for you; shades of Michelle Boag.
    That David Seymour had the right to question the process should not be in dispute – what is in dispute is his right to sabotage an initiative to up the vaccination rate of a vulnerable group for his own political purpose.

      • DG, I don’t disagree with that quote; my thoughts are though in times of crisis sometimes we have to focus on the short term goal for awhile.

    • A group that by its own admission vaccinated more non Maori then Maori, thus making a mockery out of that access code anyways.
      Never mind, let us not talk about the fact that the vaccination process started too late, the groups ‘eligible’ for vaccinations were somewhat random – see Police not vaccinated, Port workers not vaccinated etc, and that we right now have still the possiblity to run out of vaccines unless the Spaniards bail us out because our dear government ordered too little too late.
      But it can’t be Labour’s fault, it must be someone else at fault, someone best from the opposition who is not in government and is not running things. Right, cause Dear Jacinda ‘saved’ you. Lol

      • Sabine, do I take it from your reply that you are ok with people publishing legitimate (legal) messages not intended for them when it suits their political agenda? a simple yes or no will do.

        • That is a legal matter and should be handled as such and funnily enough no one really is frothing at the seems about this part of the story thus – end of story. Someone can file a legal claim.

          But to try and bind this mockery of a vaccination drive on this action by the hologram is lazy at best and to be honest, considering that no one in the real world talks bout it also really just meh and uninspired.

          Luckily for dear Jacinda the Spaniards delivered and we have now another 250000 doses which will vaccinate another 125 000 people with a double dose. That is how awesome our vaccination drive is. A trickle here and a trickle there, and thanks so very very much Spain.
          That is the actual story that some would rather not talk about.

  9. When asked why he (Seymour) had released the code instead of issuing a statement to the press denouncing it, he replied ‘for the attention’. When the single use plastic bag was banned in NZ, Seymour issued a statement arguing that this will cause many deaths as cloth bags can become contaminated. When asked why he said this with no evidence, he replied ‘for the attention’. Anybody else see a pattern emerging? Anyone thinking that this is a moral crusade by ACT needs their head read. It is all a vote gathering exercise and nothing more (just like the Gun debate). Just politics as usual. A vote for ACT is a vote for Victorian values where the wealthy are left alone to get on with making more money, the poor are vilified (poor life choices) and are left to the devices of ‘charity’ and the middle classes are offered a mirage of elevation to the high table through the subjectification of the poor all while the state as a servant of the people is disassembled and recreated as the ruling class. Health, Education and social agencies all to be privatised as a matter of course in the great struggle against any kind of social democracy in the name of Libertarianism (or what’s in it for me?). NZ will be poorer for the elevation of Seymour as our moral crusader. The guy actually is a cockwomble so why take offence? just the majority saying how it is. Seymour quite happy to call people fuckwits or a menace to freedom or any other insult de jour for the attention. Now he’s offended and his supporters are offended? is ACT against freedom of speech now? Hilarious.

  10. Thanks Ross I enjoyed that.
    Good on Seymour for having the courage to point out how hell bent the Labour Government is on dividing NZ.
    Willie Jackson is the leader of the Labour Government Jacinda Ardern is there because of her propaganda skills.

    • The Labour Government is hell bent on dividing NZ? One didn’t have to go to Specsavers to see that New Zealand has been divided for years. Labour is hell bent on doing things which have that exposed, being faced up to. And some people don’t like that.

      • My thoughts also Peter. Both Nats & Labour have been courting the Maori vote for years – remember the National/Maori coalition that insured unelected Maori representation on the Super City Council. The Right bloggers obviously have short memories.

  11. He’s using the oldest tool in the bag. ‘Racism’.
    NZ’ders are in general, racist. Many don’t realise this but, hey, it is what it is for whatever justification people say that they are not, they are.

    So he’s on target to roll the Natz. They are in a funk and Judas Crusha Collins hasn’t got a clue about what it is that she is there to do.
    Long may she ‘Rule!’

    What are the odds for a Labour-Act coalition government result in 2023?

    Act taking the NZF role in an MMP government because I don’t see NZF coming back.

    Labour have demonstrated that they cant handle governing alone with a growing list of Crisis on their hands.

    Housing, Homelessness, Health, Covid, Education, Terrorism and Poverty Crisis and no capacity within this lame-duck government to address any of these ‘Crises’ at all.

  12. Ross
    In respect of Mz Collins, I am compelled to say: You are onto it.

    When the Leader of a Political party stoops to describing someone – anyone – by their physical appearance as perceived by that Leader, and such as Collins did when she said:

    ” National Party leader Judith Collins has called one of New Zealand’s top microbiologists Dr Siouxsie Wiles “a big, fat hypocrite” over controversy surrounding Wiles’ trip to the beach with a friend during lockdown.”

    Such an outburst exposes not only a lack of disciple and control of emotions but it also exposes a lack of vocabulary and acumen to compose a rebuke- in the language one might expect from a would be Prime Minister.

    This is bar room wisdom at it best,.

    • The pink fearmongering Labour Apperatschnik broke the Governments Covid rules. No leaving the house without a mask, not leaving the 5 km perimeter, not mingling with people not in your bubble.
      I get it, she is on your side, so rule breaking is ok. 🙂

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