Mike's Minute: Britain's COVID enquiry highlights Labour's mistakes

The overarching view of the British Covid inquiry is that lockdown did not need to happen.

Their inquiry is different to our two For a start, the key players turned up. Boris Johnson and co got grilled.

Ardern and Hipkins and co never did because they refused.

Damien Grant: Covid-19 revisionism, how did we get here?

We’re having a moment. New Zealand. Feigning outrage over the unwillingness of Ardern, Robertson and Hipkins to front to phase two of the Royal Commission into the Covid pandemic.

Let’s consider this. For a moment.

Ian Miller: Covid lockdowns devastated an entire generation of children

In what we now understand were completely theatrical attempts to control the Covid-19 pandemic, experts demanded and politicians mandated all sorts of intrusive policies.

Mask mandates were one of the most obvious. School closures. Lockdowns. Curfews. Capacity limits. Fear campaigns. The list is and was endless. And unfortunately the public willingly complied with all of them.

Jeffrey A. Tucker: Ten Points About Post-Lockdown Economics

The sudden economic lockdown of March 2020, the world over, was one of the more shocking moments in history. The very core of the economic problem from the beginning of recorded time was getting more of what people needed to them in a way that was sustainable given the inherent scarcities of the state of nature.

Regardless of the system, creating wealth was the stated goal, and humanity gradually discovered that trade, investment, marketing, and access to more via travel and creativity was the way forward.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: The effects of Covid lockdown

Ardern laughs off as ridiculous the awful effect on school children of being online, on screens, during her Covid lockdowns. New research from the London School of Economics proves her wrong.

Dr Michael Bassett: Labour's crime legacy of the last three years

The Labour Government lost the 2023 election when its support halved from 2020. It deserved to lose on economic grounds alone. Covid lockdowns that went beyond the prudent and wrecked livelihoods in the name of saving lives; an orgy of careless spending of borrowed money; and a failure to ensure that the 16,000 extra bureaucrats improved crucial services in meaningful ways; plus sloppily handled infrastructure plans, were all counts against Jacinda Ardern, Grant Robertson and Chris Hipkins.

Professor John Raine: International Education – Not just a Question of Re-opening the Border

The 20^th March NZ Herald article, “Hundreds of International students affected by visa delays”, does not reassure us that specialist capacity issues in Immigration New Zealand have been addressed. These were well known at least two years ago as international student business was re-opening.

Covid-19 lockdowns and the border closure caused massive destruction to our tourism and hospitality industries, but also widespread damage to many other industries, notably international education.

Lushington D. Brady: Time to Say It Again

Lockdowns. Made. It. All. Worse

I've been saying it since the early months of the pandemic, and I’m going to keep saying it because those responsible ought to hear: lockdowns were worse than useless.

Kate Hawkesby: Hipkins may regret Auckland's lockdown, I can tell you who regrets it more

The audacity of this Government - seriously, it makes you wonder whether this the most hypocritical government ever.

Yesterday, Chris Hipkins - as in pulpit of truth Chris Hipkins – Covid Minister Chris Hipkins, the guy who ran the whole shebang alongside Jacinda - showed he's now so desperate for votes, that he said he now regrets the 2021 lockdown length for Aucklanders.

No kidding. Does he really? I lived through that lockdown, alongside everyone else in Auckland.

Ananish Chaudhuri: The collateral damage from our zero Covid mindset

Ashley Bloomfield was Knighted recently for the role he played in New Zealand’s Covid-19 response. His response relied primarily on the use of extensive and stringent lockdowns.

But were our lockdowns worth it and was our covid response appropriate? A Royal Commission of Inquiry is currently underway to establish lessons learned from the country’s Covid-19 response.

Brendan O'Neill: The sinister cruelty of lockdown has been laid bare

We now know just how drunk on tyranny the political class was during the pandemic.

They were laughing at us. They didn’t only lock us down. They didn’t only suspend virtually every one of our civil liberties, including a right none of us ever expected to lose: the right to leave our own homes. They didn’t only spy on us with drones, and encourage us to snitch on that neighbour going for a sneaky second jog, and fine teenagers life-ruining sums of money for holding house parties. They also chuckled about it. It was funny to them. In one of the most startling WhatsApp chats revealed in the Daily Telegraph’s Lockdown Files, a senior civil servant says the following about Brits returning from trips abroad who were forced to quarantine in a stuffy hotel room for 10 days: ‘Hilarious.’