On Waitangi day I reflected that by Friday Audrey would write a glowing report about Luxon's speech and that Thomas would be boasting how National and Act will not have been harmed at all by the whole Waitangi thing in the form of a Taxpayers Union ( Atlas ) poll.
I was almost correct, but not quite, Audrey did shine Luxon's speech by saying it was a success because it was not a disaster - given it was not cancelled and today it's Claire, Thomas' boss who is boasting about the Taxpayers Union poll ( Atlas ) which suggests Seymour is surging in popularity.
That poll was taken over the first week of February and included Waitangi Day and polled 1000 people with a margin for error of 3.1%.
Claire's favourite Hero was doing okay despite the shocking speech, the mixed messages, the callous policies, and outright fibs.
"Luxon’s favourability ratings have remained strong in the polling: 44 per cent of voters had a favourable view of Luxon and 33 per cent had an unfavourable view, giving him a net favourability of +11 per cent (up 2 points on November 2023)." boasted Claire.
Claire pointed out that 40 per cent of voters have a favourable view of Chippy while 35 per cent have an unfavourable view for a net favourability of +4 per cent.
So that means Luxon is more favoured to lead according to Atlas.
Kind of like telling us more people liked hollow, incompetent, nation wrecking BS than decisive, substance with a moral compass.
What a surprise.
So now it was time when things start to get hazy and on Waitangi Day I had said that by Tuesday this week things will be hazy and in another two weeks much of all this forgotten as we are staring down a four week parliamentary sitting block that Claire, Thomas, Audrey and the rest of the team are looking forward to - so that Luxon can get away from the Act party Treaty Principles Bill focus and - move on as if Waitangi Day never happened - just a box that Luxon ticked on his way to his 100 day plan.
The predictability of all this showed how money wins elections and dominates public thinking.
NZ media coffers are at a low ebb right now - there's no money like there is over at the Taxpayers Union who have heaps of cash - to waste on influencer polls - driving the door down on the Treaty, building up the right wing support and all that jazz about Seymour being your PM...
Media are cash poor and Goodness knows there's no helping them without an Atlas Network backlash ...where NZ on Air and Jack Tame are accused of something like Māorification and separatist apartheid...and we remember how we could not afford that TVNZ/RNZ merger or better broadcasting.
Apart from the traditional political parties and the Unions our main hope lies in grass roots movements and the ability of kindly super wealthy patrons to pump some money into counter programs - so we are all informed, understand who the enemy is and how to best solve the problem of winning hearts and minds.
I reflected what more could we be doing?
What if we had the donations that they did?
More voices, louder voices in more places.
Our own media.
What if we had organisations claiming to be independent funded to the max to appear in blanket coverage all across the channels?
Our voice has been too small, our correctness and evidence ignored. Just like it has been everywhere - where there's a class war and it's the poor and the academics against the greedy free market capitalists.
This comes back to something Nicky Hager said, that you should not be able to buy elections and that's what we have seen.
Remember Dita calling this out on The Nation after the election?
Well Dita was right, the money is the key on many levels.
We have the numbers but they have the biggest megaphone and all the buying power and cash.
Perhaps it's always the case that a few billionaires will help tip us all over the edge of the climate tipping points all for the sake of their mistaken cult thinking about shrinking the state, capturing the state and keeping the lemmings running towards that cliff?
The end of the human story in a stable climate and the start of our demise brought on by the Atlas Network and followers.
I'd like to think there's more power in the brains and hearts of people than to keep allowing that to happen...
What do you think?
Saturday Afternoon Wrap
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