Surely it's only one more day before Chris Hipkins gets to, just maybe, put the gangs in the rear-view mirror.
In his new found assessment that handing millions to the Mongrel Mob when last in government was "a mistake", he reveals the real issue he faces this election campaign;
Time.
The gap between what he did and what he now promises to do is too short. That is roughly why most governments get two terms.
Generally, governments lose elections, Oppositions don’t win them.
The reason they lose them is we are sick of the incumbents and that feeling generally lasts longer than three years.
For Hipkins, and for that matter Sepuloni, Andersen, Verrall, Tinetti, Edmonds, and Co, to be back so soon after an historically implosive burst of Labour-style ideology was always going to be a test of the punter's resolve.
Which is why I have been moderately critical of this Government's lack of focus on that period in which we were literally sold down a fiscal river through sheer incompetence.
It has rectified itself this past week with the gangs because the gangs are a visceral reminder of who these people really are. You could add MIQ, lockdowns, free money and the Māorification obsession. The list is enormous, but the gangs have refocused us on the worst of Labour.
So with gangs back front and centre, the question had to be asked about the free millions for the Mongrel Mob, Chris. This is the $2.75 million for alleged meth rehab.
And Hipkins, having done the best he could in the distancing department from the Greens, if not the Māori Party, could do nothing more than throw Ardern under the bus and say it was a mistake.
Which indeed it was. It was an egregious one, but one nevertheless that shows basically who they are.
Saying something when he wants your vote is easy. Some might suggest he will say anything.
But the record speaks for itself and given they have not changed, have not apologised and have not recognised the damage whether in justice, crime, the economy, education or any number of social issues, they remain who they always were;
A failed Government hoping three years on you’ve forgotten it all.
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