Curwen Rolinson

Something which occurred to me in light of the American Presidential electoral results … is that Trump is having a Pinochet moment.

Why is New Zealand’s pandemic response (as of a few months ago, might I add) being blasted across Fox News in the US and presented as some sort of dystopian totalitarian FEMA internment camp ridden nightmare?

the net impact is that our upcoming Election has been transformed from a potentially fraught democratic contest between two major blocs … into an effective coronation.

A wise man once noted that the essence of successful political presentation was authenticity. Once you could fake that, you’d got it made. 

Last night’s Reid Research poll – coming as it does upon the heel of last week’s Colmar Brunton and seeming to confirm the party’s down in the margin-of-error thickets of circa two percent – should be worrying for them.

Like many New Zealanders, I felt that the news coming through yesterday that some “science-disbelieving” Evangelical church had produced itself a sub-cluster of Covid-19 seemed a cold slap in the face.

On Friday, Singapore made an announcement – New Zealanders heading there would no longer be required to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival. Instead, Kiwis will simply be given a Covid-19 test and assuming it’s negative, they’ll be allowed to go on their way. 

Over the next few days, you are going to see an escalating tide of “I think National should be part of the Government” as applies health decisions, because people “don’t want playing politics” with the crisis-response.

There are bad news cycles, there are poor news weeks lacking in cut-through – and then there’s whatever’s happening with the Opposition. Wherein they’ve transcended mere mediocrity to start showing their true colours in the most inadvertent and unintentional of ways, splashed across our headlines.