I said it as the debate here raged, as to a woman's right to be herself.
I'm talking, of course, about the argument that you could be a leader and still go dancing all night and the fact that she had gone out to a party that turned up on Instagram was fine because she didn’t have any meetings that weekend.
Marin was the Goddess of Finland, the soul sister of our own dancing queen Jacinda Ardern, a couple of the planets most progressive, young and female rockstars.
What right did we have to question her social life?
My argument was being a leader of a country is 24/7, even if there wasn’t a war on and even if you didn’t share hundreds of kilometres of border with Russia.
You might just want to be seen to be taking your job seriously and, as I pointed out at the time, not having meetings is not a sign of anything other than you may, or may not, have meetings.
It is not a measure of leadership.
Well, she's got all the time in the world now to dance her nights and life away.
She lost.
To be fair to her, she didn’t lose by much. But they have a system that throws up a couple of major players who, like us, link with smaller players and form Governments.
But the country has moved to the right and her style of spendthrift policy is over, just as their debt has gotten uncomfortably high. Not unlike ours.
Which is why we will be moving to the right in October.
The only real difference between them and us is she hung around to test her credibility. Our version bailed knowing full well her time was up.
But here's the point - the reason this is news is not because Finland had an election, as countries have elections all the time.
The reason this one has been reported so widely is in the headlines, all of which essentially say the same thing - "Finland's Partying PM Concedes Defeat".
And in that headline, and the many others, is how the world saw her, sees her and will remember her.
When the social life makes the headlines over the substance, the fact she didn’t get it says it all.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings.
What right did we have to question her social life?
My argument was being a leader of a country is 24/7, even if there wasn’t a war on and even if you didn’t share hundreds of kilometres of border with Russia.
You might just want to be seen to be taking your job seriously and, as I pointed out at the time, not having meetings is not a sign of anything other than you may, or may not, have meetings.
It is not a measure of leadership.
Well, she's got all the time in the world now to dance her nights and life away.
She lost.
To be fair to her, she didn’t lose by much. But they have a system that throws up a couple of major players who, like us, link with smaller players and form Governments.
But the country has moved to the right and her style of spendthrift policy is over, just as their debt has gotten uncomfortably high. Not unlike ours.
Which is why we will be moving to the right in October.
The only real difference between them and us is she hung around to test her credibility. Our version bailed knowing full well her time was up.
But here's the point - the reason this is news is not because Finland had an election, as countries have elections all the time.
The reason this one has been reported so widely is in the headlines, all of which essentially say the same thing - "Finland's Partying PM Concedes Defeat".
And in that headline, and the many others, is how the world saw her, sees her and will remember her.
When the social life makes the headlines over the substance, the fact she didn’t get it says it all.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings.
1 comment:
Yes striking parallels but I would say one was prettier than the other. No prize for guessing who.
On that same note Prince William has appointed our dearly beloved to work for a charity of his. Blagh! Does he really know the damage she's capable of?
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