Here is the con.  

Just yesterday, in a 24-hour period, the Golden Shears are off. It was followed by the Marlborough Food and Wine Festival, which is also off. 

Is this the summer we were promised? Is this us getting back to doing the things we love as the Government rhetoric and the endless advertising has promised? 

All we had to do was get jabbed and life was back to normal, summer was on, and we were doing the things we loved. It's now fairly obvious that's not true. 

They changed the rules on the 90 percent and they made it 90 percent for every DHB. That, at best, looks a long way off. 

They made the light system, which we are now operating under, completely incomprehensible, given the advice they offer as to what drives what colour, makes no sense. 

Red is when the hospital system is strained. The hospital system isn't strained anywhere. So why red? Because, they will argue, of vulnerable populations. Vulnerable populations will seemingly always be vulnerable, so does that mean red forever? 

Don't get me started on Ashley Bloomfield's advice that has been ignored twice now. 

The Golden Shears in Masterton. Is Covid rampant in Masterton? No. Has it ever been? No. Yet the Golden Shears is off. Marlborough, another hot bed of Covid? No. Hospital system strained? No. Should it be in green? Yes. Is it? No. Do we know why? No. 

The Wine and Food Festival is one of the biggest events of the year, but it's gone. 

Can the event organisers carry a bit of the can? Maybe. But between the muddled rules, the made-up, ever-changing views approaches, and orders, no one knows what's going on. 

The mandates around apps and vaccines are all over the place. An environment has been created where the risk is too high, and the cancellations are the result. 

Once again, they failed to deliver. If you want a Kiwi summer get jabbed, not so. If you want to get back to doing the things you love, get jabbed, not so. Toss in some Māori led road blocks for good measure. 

Yet again the rhetoric hasn’t matched the reality.