There is nothing one can do in politics that does not upset at least somebody - and that's not surprising since politics is essentially about resolving differences and is only needed when there are differences to be resolved.
We surely wouldn't do both with politics if we didn't need some process for reconciling competing interests and allocating scarce resources - and democratic politics is, on the whole, a better way of settling such questions, rather than by force or privilege. But the process of resolution, however carefully undertaken, will inevitably leave some dissatisfied.
And that is even more likely when it is not just views or preferences that are put forward but are instead policy decisions that have a real impact on people's lives. Those who suffer what they believe are adverse impacts from government policy will not be slow to vent their displeasure.
The compensations of being in government - the sense of having the power to make a difference and get things done, to have people hang on your every word, the ministerial limousines, the salary and the travel perks - are all offset by the realisation that everything one does will create furious opposition from at least some of one's fellow-citizens.
However sensible and helpful a policy decision may be in the wider interest and for society as a whole, it may of course still be opposed by a narrower range of special interests - and much of the stuff of politics is about trying to persuade people that a policy that seems to favour a few, or disadvantage others, is really in the general interest.
When a new government takes office, the discovery that the plaudits are few and the brickbats are many can take some getting used to.
It is then that the real substance of the politician is revealed. The effective ministers are those who know what to expect and who have the fortitude to stick to their guns and the expertise to make a good fist of explaining why they believe that what they are doing is right.
Our new Labour-led Government has so far had a pretty good run in his respect. The media, with Jacinda dominating the news, have been reasonably kind, and the opposition have struggled to lay a glove on them. But one or two ministers have run into difficulties and others will have been taken aback by hostile reception to measures they thought were in the public interest.
We might hope that people will come to realise that, in a democracy, not every individual or sectional interest can take priority. The best that can be hoped for is competence and rationality - that, when the Government makes a decision between competing interests, it will make a sensible and rational assessment of how those interests can best be balanced, and of what the national interest demands.
It is one of the strengths of democracy that our leaders must expect to be held to account and to be subjected to careful scrutiny - and for our part, we must be careful not to discredit the idea of democracy itself by refusing to recognise that no government can please all the people all of the time.
