Mike Hosking: Coutts and Bolton add their voices to the growing displeasure

 

Kudos to Murray Bolton and Russell Coutts this week for making their mark, their contribution, to what I have no doubt is a growing resistance to the absurdity that is the running of this country. 

The danger and dishonesty of the Government and the realisation that the regime of fear and chaos has got to come to an end. 

Coutts of course, is no different to the myriad of other people who have spoken out now for months on end. 

There is now an industry of op-ed pieces and Facebook blasts from the well-known and not, many making cogent, intelligent arguments as to the madness under which we continue to operate, or as the case may be, not operate. 

And in that is the Murray Bolton case.

But Coutts is rarely heard from. He's an international citizen, he carries kudos and credibility, he's a businessman who deals with a world that is leaving us behind. 

He puts his voice to the chorus of people who are hamstrung, angry, confused, defeated, bust and bewildered. At a regime whose sole argument, if not obsession, appears to keep hospital beds empty at all costs, while refusing to bolster the number of hospital beds. 

But back to Bolton. If you missed it, he's a businessman who employs a lot of people, he needs to be at a board meeting in Boston. Zoom won't cut it, he argues; our interests will be disadvantaged if he isn't there. 

He is, of course, jabbed and what separates him out, is he's taking a private jet and wants to isolate at home because he can't get an MIQ spot. 

The judge, short of a fuller explanation today, has ordered MBIE to look at the case again. 

Looking isn't solving the problem - but for now, it’s a win. 

His lawyer, in one of the week’s better lines, says unless you're living down a rabbit hole in Wellington you know that Auckland's economy is under significant stress. 

And that’s the danger. We are being governed from the rabbit's hole. Hell, the Prime Minister hasn’t even set foot in the place for close to three months. 

Add to these examples Radius Care, God bless them for being human. People in aged care need family. To be prevented in your final years from being with your loved ones sums this Government up. 

They're cold, heartless, uncaring and robotic. 

Even ol' Leo Molloy is opening his restaurant December 1st come what may. No idea how he's going to do it but good luck to him. 

It’s a sign this is coming to an end. It's a sign the trust has been lost, the will power is gone, the patience is up and the frustration now heavily outweighs the logic. 

The Government have blown it. They pushed too hard, too far, for too long 

And combine it with the lack of common sense, of a plan of any real detail, of the endless announcements about announcements - and whatever good grace there was, has been abused to the point of no return. 

You only govern with the good will of the people. 

Good will is in shorter supply than magnesium.

Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings.