Um, the author of the article is a Dr Muriel Newman, “a former member of the New Zealand Parliament for the right-wing ACT New Zealand party and a former deputy leader of the party.”

Guess which side of the people vs economy debate she would take.

So I think that what John Key presented to New Zealand politics and his willingness to guard the economy in those crunch times and his willingness to look down the barrel and lie, and live with the criticism and his willingness to never join another team which a lot of politicians will sell out for their own career development. Yknow Jenny Shipley sold out hard to China and destroyed Mainzeal. And for Simon Bridges to pick all this up and keep it going because Amy Adams wanted nothing to do with it she left early on in Bridges leadership and she could have been Finance Minister (could have been) and I like how National does that.

Yknow if Jacinda wins number 2 Yknow shit is going to get real and I think that’s the reason why John Key is name dropping so John Key is already thinking okay Jacinda is going to win a second term so he’s going to get political and I’m not going to say that Iv lost respect for John Key but the whole undermining Simon Bridges because he thinks Jacinda is going to win is pressure. My thing is pressure acknowledges pressure and Simon Bridges kind of acknowledges the pressure and I don’t think John Key is acknowledging the pressure rather than an opportunity to play. Yknow instead of doing subliminal things Yknow just come out and do a first take interview and be like yup I hear them footsteps.

Based on the hard data in the above link; even the most devoted follower of Jacinda (and of course; Democratic process!), must feel some alarm at her capture by faceless bureaucrats subject to no restraints under the licence Labour has extended.

Even Bomber raised this concern.

DX5
I acknowledge: You identify a contributing factor.
Subsequent death threats however; (not from media)- a bit over the top.

The problem was the public, not media, backlash on his facebook post. And it was this backlash that led the media to report on Bridges’ performance and leadership. Without that backlash, would the media be talking about rumblings of Bridges getting rolled?

VIRUS TRACK
Without a tried-and-tested action plan for how to pull countries out of coronavirus lockdown, the world is seeing a patchwork of approaches. Schools reopen in one country, stay closed in others; face masks are mandatory in some places, a recommendation elsewhere.

Australia has recorded 6675 confirmed cases of Covid-19, including 2982 in New South Wales, 1343 in Victoria, 1026 in Queensland, 438 in South Australia, 548 in Western Australia, 207 in Tasmania, 105 in the Australian Capital Territory and 27 in the Northern Territory. Seventy nine people have died of the disease, but thousands have recovered, ensuring the nation is not just flattening the curve but crushing it.

However, responses around the globe, vary as dramatically as do methodologies for testing and for calculate COVID 110 deaths viz underlying issues.

Kids still attend soccer practice in Sweden while they are not even allowed outside in Spain. As governments and scientists struggle with so many unknowns, individuals are being left to take potentially life-affecting decisions.

Italy, where the strict stay-at-home order has been credited with finally getting that nation’s crisis under some semblance of control, authorities are now warning that home has become a dangerous place for many Italians.

Italian households represent “the biggest reservoir of infections,” said Massimo Galli, the director of the infectious diseases department at Luigi Sacco University Hospital in Milan. He called the cases “the possible restarting point of the epidemic in case of a reopening

In Georgia (USA), David Huynh had 60 clients booked for appointments at his nail salon in Savannah, but a clothing store, jewellery shop and chocolatier that share a street corner with his downtown business, Envy Nail Bar, remained closed.

Germany allowed smaller retailers of under 800sq m to re-open, as long as they abided by social distancing and hygiene measures.

In France, the government is leaving families to decide whether to keep children at home or send them back to class when the nationwide lockdown, in place since March 17, starts to be lifted on May 11.

In Spain, parents face a similarly knotty decision: whether to let kids get their first fresh air in weeks when the country starts Sunday to ease the total ban on letting them outside.