So Shane Jones is a racist, or is he?

This is like an on going serial drama. Say something that upsets people, get the obligatory reaction, get told off by the Prime Minister, watch the Prime Minister's telling off get laughed at, roll out someone like the Race Relations Commissioner who says it's racist, get a comment from Shane Jones who says it isn't, and wait for next time.

He, in this particular case, has produced a moderately nice turn of phrase.

The younger generation, he says, especially those who belong to "Ngati Woke" have inherited the value of free speech. But when they hear speech that is not in the vein of a carefully nuanced and perfectly couched terminology, then they are offended and they reach for the mallet of xenophobia.

Winston Peters rolled in with the defence. He suggested Jones was merely reflecting the views of the Indian community that had contacted New Zealand First. Never having to name any of those people, of course, allows a robust defence.

"These aren't our words, they are merely the words of the Indian community, and therefore, by inference, how can they be racist."

The great game at play here, of course, is the cold hard reality that Shane Jones is loving it. He knows no one can touch him, and he also knows a lot of what he says plays beautifully to the people he wants to play to. And those who are aggrieved and upset are not those people.

It makes Jacinda Ardern's day hard work. You have never seen a Prime Minister so hamstrung when it comes to discipline. She has the ongoing hassle of Jones and his tongue, and Jones’ leader, her Deputy Prime Minister occupying the time of the Serious Fraud Office and all the potential political carnage that entails, and literally she can do nothing about it.

If ever you wanted tangible examples of who is running this country and who has the power, this is all the evidence you need.

Of course, Jones actually has a point.

• Bridges criticise Shane Jones over 'racist' comments as Peters defends MP

Not specifically necessarily about Indians and whether they ruin institutions. But on the greatest of rights, the ability to speak your mind, and say what you want in a world, where that pursuit has been curtailed, many of us would argue, by an army of uptight, politically correct, ideologically driven, control freaks.

They are ruining discourse and free speech.

There will always have to be lines drawn, of course. But a good dose of Jones is actually good for us. It's push back, it’s a rectifying of the out of balance situation in which we find ourselves.

He represents a frustrated group that, I suspect, grows by the day. In other words, partly anyway, he is us.