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Mike Hosking: PM is scaremongering us for political advantage

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Tue, 4 Aug 2020, 10:22AM

Mike Hosking: PM is scaremongering us for political advantage

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Tue, 4 Aug 2020, 10:22AM

She was at it again yesterday. "Say yes to the test."

Highlighting a new testing regime, why is the Prime Minister doing this? Because she wants you to worry, she wants you to remember the dark and troubled days of lockdown, and the uncertainty of what would happen to us all as this previously unknown virus swept the world and towards our small nation.

The fact we haven't had community transmission for three months is unfortunately a poorly timed out working of having a successful lockdown, but not tied to the election. If they'd managed to do that they'd be home free. We'd barely be pulling our teddy out of the window before it was voting day.

You'll note, by the way if you missed the detail, that voting booths will have social distancing and hand sanitiser. What for? The virus that hasn't been for what will be well in excess of four, going on five months by then.

She said we can't be complacent. No, we can't. But that applies to crossing the road, eating too much fat, or drinking too much alcohol. That doesn't mean we test ourselves for it for the sake of it.

It really is the most glaringly audacious ploy to have us believe that a virus that is in a handful of isolation hotel dwellers really needs us lining up by the thousand to find out there isn't an issue. It's a mystery of the New Zealand psyche that was discovered in March when we all basically went home and said nothing.

We did, like a well trained small dog, as we were told. And now they are using it to get another term of government.

The fact the economy is in tatters must not be focused on because as we have heard and you will continue to hear, .we are in the middle of a pandemic. The health freak out worked for them. The economic misery, not so much.    

But here's the truth the truth of today, not March, we are not in the middle of anything other than a recession the likes of which we have never seen. This country is not in a pandemic, we haven't been for months. And even in its worst moments, of the 1000 beds we set aide for the tidal wave of death and ventilators, we hardly filled any.

They’ve had their health curtain call, we've applauded. But they're now milking the standing ovations for naked political advantage.  

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