Mike's Minute: Being a leader is a 24/7 job, as Sanna Marin found out

Sanna Marin - I said it at the time when she arrived in the country for a visit.

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.

Graham Adams: Ardern’s disregard for democracy on full display

After Jacinda Ardern held a press conference alongside Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin on November 30, media attention focused on a dumb question posed by a journalist.

Asking whether the two Prime Ministers were meeting because they were two young women was stupid and sexist but the wave of self-righteous indignation that followed entirely obscured another outrageous statement — made by Ardern herself.

She actually had the gall to boast to Marin about New Zealand’s democratic credentials.

In what can only be described as evidence of a serious dislocation from reality, Ardern opined: “Our countries are aligned on incredibly important issues. We share a strong commitment to democratic values as a basis for tolerant, open, resilient, equal societies.”