new zealand, the land of th ebig long whinge...

 Gavin Ellis former New Zealand Herald editor-in-chief.

"I am confronted daily by examples of peevish bleating, whining, and complaining. I hear demands for certainty where there can be none.

I hear commentators crying out for an end to Level 4 then Level 3 lockdown. They range from predictable nay-saying radio hosts like Mike Hosking, Heather du Plessis-Allan and Kerre McIvor to the unscientific Sir John Key, whose syndicated comments were the product of some yet-to-be-revealed stratagem by the former prime minister.

I see New Zealanders demanding that their right to return to this country be met NOW when it is obvious that the number of intending returnees far exceeds the country’s capacity to safely manage them.

I read of business demanding the ability to trade, and parents demanding to take their children to far-flung spots for the school holidays, when doing so risks undoing the constraint that has been put on the spread of the Delta variant.

I am told the Government is incompetent or that it has gone too hard, and that the Police haven’t gone hard enough on gangs and followers of Brian Tamaki.

What else could I conclude but that we are a nation of whingers