Jim Bolger was in Parliament a long time. But he had a productive life before it. Leaving school at 15 and into work. Hard work. Manual work. On the farm in Taranaki and later Te Kuiti.
Now it’s straight from school, into a student union at university, and into Parliament.
Have you watched Parliament TV lately? You’ve got MPs who literally don’t know how to ask a question.
It’s like watching a video buffering.
No idea about standing orders. No idea about the rules that govern the place. And no real apparent care to learn, either.
They just walk in, full of entitlement, sit down, and start yelling.
One of the most important tools in the modern MP’s toolbox is the unwavering ability to take offence at anything and everything.
Intolerance for another’s point of view, the antithesis of Jim Bolger, is now common place.
Where once there was decency, there’s mistrust. Wisdom’s been usurped by incompetence. And decorum’s been biffed out the window and replaced with petulance.
People aren’t recognised for their standing in the community and voted into Parliament.
They’re there because politics is now an industry - and more importantly - nobody else would hire them and pay the going rate we do.
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