Hamish Bidwell: Bloomfield just doing his job

Hamish Bidwell says during the Covid-19 response Ashley Bloomfield was merely articulating the recommendations of others,

I have nothing against Ashley Bloomfield.

The Director-General of Health will relinquish his position in July, having become among the more visible public servants in our history.

The man took on a celebrity status for a time, with his appearance in a friendly rugby match at Wainuiomata, for instance, enticing a cast of thousands to come along. Vox pops from the time revealed people who were literally giddy at the sight of the great man in action.

A national hero, a saviour, maybe even a modern-day saint.

I wish Bloomfield well and hope he can land a lucrative private sector role somewhere, maybe get on a worldwide public-speaking circuit where he can tell well-heeled audiences about how he saved New Zealand from Covid.

No, that's not quite right. Jacinda Ardern saved us from Covid, we should all be forever grateful and Bloomfield merely did her bidding.

Or at least he did when those decisions met with universal approval.

If there were problems, say with RAT tests, for instance, that was on Bloomfield's watch.

Let's be fair, that's how many people frame the last couple of years. They think we'd all be dead without Ardern and Bloomfield and that no-one should forget that.

When Bloomfield goes, he'll go with the best wishes of a nation that would have been dog tucker without him.

Hamish Bidwell.

I exaggerate slightly for effect here, but only to highlight how daft an idea it is that a prime minister and a public servant saved us from oblivion. Not our isolation from the world, not modelling from overseas, not the collective wisdom of genuine experts in the field, but the two people delivering the message from Parliament's press theatre.

Few sights embarrass me more than grown adults idolising others. I understand it in children, because they don't know any better, but that's no excuse for the rest of us.

We should have the common sense to understand that Bloomfield and Ardern were merely articulating the recommendations of others, recommendations that any political leader or public servant would have followed in the same circumstances.

I don't worship rockstars, actors, athletes or celebrity chefs. I certainly don't identify as a supporter of a political party or ideology and then cloak myself within it.

But many people do, and as the shine has started to come off this Labour government folk have become wounded on its behalf.

After all that Ardern has done for us, how dare dissenters suddenly find their voice.

I have made my living writing about sport. It seemed a good idea at the time but, as I went on, it became clear just how human the participants were.

In many cases, there was nothing remarkable or even admirable about those we put on a pedestal. They were just as flawed as the rest of us.

So good on Ashley Bloomfield. Good on him for doing his job and being well-paid for it. Good on him for getting out with his reputation largely intact and good on him for putting up with those press conferences.

But spare me this idea that we owe him our lives or even a round of applause.

Any public servant in his circumstances could've done the same.