This, of course, is how governments unravel. The economy and incompetence will kill you every time.
The theme of this government pre-Covid-19 was on delivery, or lack of it. They can't do stuff. They announce stuff, but can't deliver. They can't build houses, they can't build light rail, andnow it turns out they can't run a pandemic.
The irony of that is they have spent so much time and energy telling you that they not only could, but they were among the best in the world.
The centrepiece of the pantomime was, of course, our great leader and her trusted health sidekick ... the bloke she hitched her reputational wagon to, Dr Ashley Bloomfield. We became so enamoured with Bloomfield. We had T-shirts made, we have tea towels, we feted him, and we wanted his children.
COVID
Sadly, I reckon he is a bust. To me, he is like a lot of other wonks who head ministries: Not very good at his job. Read the Auditor-General's report into PPE. And because the Prime Minister has no experience in anything, like so many Labour leaders and ministers before her in similar scenarios, she relies completely on the so-called expert's advice.
Once you do that, you're stuck with your decision. Ardern is stuck with Bloomfield, and he is going to drag her down.
Bloomfield, of course, should have quit by now. And in that is the other problem. No one quits in this government. No one quits, no is sacked, and no one is held to account. They're not held to account because as one MP, Deborah Russell, famously said of Ardern, "it's not her way". The problem with it not being her way is it sets the bar so low, everyone goes to sleep.
That's why people leave quarantine with no tests, despite there being rules about tests. That's why cops don't knock on doors of those in self-isolation, despite the fact we were assured they would. That's why they argued self-isolation was fine and quarantine wasn't needed. It's why they argued there was plenty of PPE, and we were on a war footing. Hell, it's probably why the couriers couldn't deliver anything for weeks on end.
No one gives a monkey's because from the top down this government is about noise, headlines, verbal frippery and nothing beyond that. They don't do details, they don't do delivery. They do feelings. You can't run a country on feelings.
In essence, this is an inept government. The suspicion was well and truly raised last year as the economy slowed. It's been confirmed now as the pandemic response spectacularly falls apart.
We see reports of incompetence, stories that aren't true, and details that change daily.
And yet, still no accountability. Everyone who cocked this up, is cocking this up, is still in work.
