I have said a couple of times we are being played like a fiddle. 

This government has little more than contempt for most of us, and the proof of this, sadly for them, was leaked on Friday.

Along with the classic Friday dump of vast swathes of documentation around the advice they were getting and subsequent handling of the crisis, we got the leak of the email from the Prime Minister's office.

The email said Ministers were not to talk, not to give interviews, there is no real need to defend themselves, and only issue a brief written response. It went on to say the government had no need to respond, because of the overwhelming public support, and should instead "lead the changing conversation." That, by the way, is another term for spin the conversation.

It ends, having told them not to say a word, "we can dismiss."

The old Friday number is standard fare. It is not unique to this lot, but it is, in it's own way, why politics and their operators are broadly treated with the level of derision they are.

But the PMO's e-mail is a good insight into just how Machiavellian she really is. In many respects it's clever. The stuff you're supposed to see, the Facebook Lives on the floor of the lounge next to Neve's fort, the teddy bears in windows, and making of the Easter Bunny an essential worker is what got her on the cover of magazines. It's why too many of the local media here have forgotten their job and adopted their new public relations stance supporting their favourite government.

She smiles, she hugs, she tells you to be kind, and for good numbers of the media and New Zealand that’s all they want from a leader. It's all the time and energy they want to spare on the business of how our country is being run.

That, of course, suits the government down to a tee. That is why what we have seen for the past eight weeks has up until recently, worked well for them. Three voices, Ardern, Robertson, and Bloomfield. Easy clean one liners, no real pressure at the daily briefing, everyone locked up, everyone scared, everyone second guessing themselves whether walking round two blocks instead of one is illegal.

But last week it fell apart. Grieving families, cancer patients not seen, the Wall Street Journal telling us Australia had a better approach than ours.

The great crime exposed out of the email need i use the line? The most open, honest, and transparent government this country has ever seen. That's what they want you to remember, but the email exposes the fraud.

We are to be treated with contempt, we are to be fed like mushrooms, we will be told when we need to be told by those the politburo deem suitable to do the telling. And in this case, no telling was required at all. "We can dismiss."  

Is it possible for them to be any more cynical? How do you feel about being so callously treated and dismissed? Or was a smile and a Facebook Live with tips for Mothers' Day all you really ever wanted?