Mike Hosking: Give vaccine stragglers a deadline then let's move on without them

OPINION:

There is a reason Boris Johnson is so popular.

He set his country free.

He believes in people owning and running their own lives.

The report out last week into how Britain handled the pandemic was in part damning.

They acted too late on the borders and a lot of people died.

But it was full of praise for the vaccine rollout, which was world-class and has allowed them to move on with life, and next to no one who is moving on with life is regretting it.

It is in part why last week's poll had the Tories out to a 10-point lead.

People wear face masks as they exit Piccadilly Circus underground station, in London, Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021. Photo / AP

There are other examples like Singapore and Denmark, but Britain was paid very close attention to here, and indeed your Michael Bakers and Helen Petousis-Harrises were scathing of Freedom Day back in July.

"A barbaric experiment," Baker called it.

Unlike Britain, we weren't led to freedom, we had to drag the Government kicking and screaming and we are still not there, but with the failure of elimination, the traffic-light system, the acceptance of ideas like Ian Taylor's self-isolation plan, the importation of rapid tests, all of a sudden you have seen essentially the control freaks in Wellington wave the white flag.

They won't admit it, but it's there for all to see.

The changes to MIQ for returning New Zealanders, it's all slowly falling apart or falling over.

We have passed the point of no return, and a government that is truly interested in our best interests would have let go by now, like Johnson and like Dominic Perotett in NSW.

The vaccine was always the answer but, unlike most other countries, the control freaks are determined to control us until the last possible minute.

The libertarians would have set us free, because of one critical point in time.

The first part of the year when the vaccine wasn't available to us, that crime was on the Government.

When they review our response, unlike Britain, it will be shown we acted quickly and saved lives at the start, but essentially from that point on we went to sleep and basked in an extraordinary amount of arrogance and complacency.

And by the time 2021 arrived we were so comatose, the fact new variants were springing up and going to wreak havoc was of no consequence, hence no vaccine.

That will be the biggest crime of the review, the sheer abdication of leadership and responsibility to protect a population.

But as of the start of September, the burden of responsibility shifted to us.

Once everyone mandated had access to the solution, those of us interested in living a full and free life got into it.

So as we sit here today, there is no longer a reason to be held captive

I am vaccinated and I want something for it ... like my life back.

There remain of the 15 per cent or so who aren't jabbed, two groups; the anti-vaxxer and the apathetic.

I am not being held back by either.

I don't care if you are not jabbed and I don't care why, but I am not being held to ransom by you.

And that is where this Government's weakness comes in.

People queue for the drive through vaccination clinic at Papakura Marae on Super Saturday. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

Limousine Left governments want too much control, they want to dictate to the successful, and they want to wipe the bum of the victim.

There is too much bum-wiping going on for the apathetic stragglers in the vaccine rollout.

Name a date, give them one more chance, get a jab, don't get jabbed, own your lot, own your life, own your circumstances.

If you'd rather watch hours of Squid Game than save your own life, that's your call.

But I am over you.

If you think there's a chip in the vaccine, or spoons stick to your arms, good luck to you. I am over you too.

There is no good reason for the vast majority of us to be held back by a) the thick; b) the lazy; or c) overarching governments who trade in fear.

If you think this is all too much and you have embraced the fear, you are allowed to do that too, be as afraid as you want, be held back for the rest of your days.

But I reckon there is a team of about four-and-a-half to five million who are done with this charade.

We are jabbed and we are ready to go. Holding us back is a crime and a failed ideology, not a policy, and certainly not a way forward.