The global centre-Left is in mourning after the shocking news that its favourite daughter is to leave the political stage. New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern says that at age 42 she is burnt-out – goodness.
Having announced “I just don’t have enough in the tank for another four years”, she will step down next month to prepare for a quiet future life away from politics, and the looming general election in the autumn. For her poll ratings, and those of her Labour party, also look pretty burnt-out. From a monumental mid-Covid pandemic high of 53 per cent in December 2020, Labour now polls at around 33 per cent.
During Ms Ardern’s heyday, the British Left liked to contrast her allegedly wise handling of Covid with what it held to be Boris Johnson’s cavalier and inept approach. Everything they wanted done in Britain as regards to more draconian measures – much harsher lockdowns, vaccine mandates and a zero-Covid objective – was deployed by Ardern, and all apparently in the name of her driving force of “kindness”.
And yet the political forces of gravity, and the return of objective reality, are now holding Ms Ardern to account. Her poll slide and the ascendancy of the centre-Right opposition began at the end of 2021, just as his crown started to slip. It is a familiar story. New Zealand faced post-pandemic economic headwinds, including rising inflation and sliding living standards. There was also a sense of post-traumatic shock as voters looked back on the liberties that were taken from them with such alacrity. Combined, these produced a new political atmosphere.
Being a key member of the Justin Trudeau selfie-gang, and turning international summits into social media photo opportunities, offered little protection against this turning tide. Neither did embracing fashionable Left-wing thinking on everything from identity politics to foreign aid. “The difference you have made is immeasurable,” the Canadian prime minister told Ardern today. It was meant as a tribute, but many a Kiwi will surely be thinking: “Yes, I can’t measure it either.”
Yet again the notion of moral superiority that so many Leftists cling to and seek to identify in their virtue-signalling leaders has come a cropper. Something similar happened to Hillary Clinton after she openly showed her contempt for the “basket of deplorables” in the electorate who clung to old-fashioned views. And though it is a little too early to know for sure, the same slide from zenith to nadir now looks to be in progress for Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who seems to find it incomprehensible that majority opinion does not endorse her radical stance on gender self-ID or consider it kind.
During his own halcyon days, Tony Blair once told me he worked on the basis of “seven years and then they hate you”. He ended up stretching his term as PM to a full decade in an apparent bid to prove his point. Ms Ardern has been in power since 2017. So her sixth sense of when she has delighted the electorate for long enough, though rationalised as personal burn-out, would appear to be spot on. Ms Sturgeon, by contrast, is nine years in.
I don’t think that one minister resigning in one country has much direct effect on a minister in a different country, with a different agenda, different politics and different motivation, but then again, I’m not a political journalist, so what do I know.
Seems weird that a Welsh conservative is so invested in promoting articles deriding the leader of a country he’s never visited.
[deleted]
“The global centre-Left is in mourning after the shocking news that its favourite daughter is to leave the political stage.”
The Telegraph literally can’t get past the first sentence without spewing shite. Were they ever really a serious newspaper? Did something happen to them?
Imagine seeing a leader have the grace, humility, and self-awareness to bow out at the top of their game, rather than after they’ve broken their own laws and lied to parliament or cost the country 50 billion quid, and thinking they’ve failed!
Is the telegraph some sort of conspiracy against female leaders?
With her husband as CEO of the SNP, it’s about time the Family Business was broken up.
They only let the finance guy back (after Hubby threw him out of his job) because he knows where the cash is.
Said from a non-SNP voting area of Scotland….and don;t we know it!
> And yet the political forces of gravity, and the return of objective reality, are now holding Ms Ardern to account
The Telegraph: bringing you objective reality since… oh… fucking never.
Getting the Telegraph to shut-up about the SNP is like trying to get a chew-toy out of a dogs mouth. They’re determined to be a complete bunch of psychos about it.
We’re about a month away from a Telegraph columnist posting their Game of Thrones fantasies, featuring Sturgeon.
Nicola Sturgeon as the next leader of New Zealand. How very odd.
I wasn’t aware of the rule that said because a young charismatic woman resigns as PM of one country, a dull old trout from another must follow suit…
Funny, they don’t run this sort of trash article anytime a random male head of state steps down.
14 comments
The global centre-Left is in mourning after the shocking news that its favourite daughter is to leave the political stage. New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern says that at age 42 she is burnt-out – goodness.
Having announced “I just don’t have enough in the tank for another four years”, she will step down next month to prepare for a quiet future life away from politics, and the looming general election in the autumn. For her poll ratings, and those of her Labour party, also look pretty burnt-out. From a monumental mid-Covid pandemic high of 53 per cent in December 2020, Labour now polls at around 33 per cent.
During Ms Ardern’s heyday, the British Left liked to contrast her allegedly wise handling of Covid with what it held to be Boris Johnson’s cavalier and inept approach. Everything they wanted done in Britain as regards to more draconian measures – much harsher lockdowns, vaccine mandates and a zero-Covid objective – was deployed by Ardern, and all apparently in the name of her driving force of “kindness”.
And yet the political forces of gravity, and the return of objective reality, are now holding Ms Ardern to account. Her poll slide and the ascendancy of the centre-Right opposition began at the end of 2021, just as his crown started to slip. It is a familiar story. New Zealand faced post-pandemic economic headwinds, including rising inflation and sliding living standards. There was also a sense of post-traumatic shock as voters looked back on the liberties that were taken from them with such alacrity. Combined, these produced a new political atmosphere.
Being a key member of the Justin Trudeau selfie-gang, and turning international summits into social media photo opportunities, offered little protection against this turning tide. Neither did embracing fashionable Left-wing thinking on everything from identity politics to foreign aid. “The difference you have made is immeasurable,” the Canadian prime minister told Ardern today. It was meant as a tribute, but many a Kiwi will surely be thinking: “Yes, I can’t measure it either.”
Yet again the notion of moral superiority that so many Leftists cling to and seek to identify in their virtue-signalling leaders has come a cropper. Something similar happened to Hillary Clinton after she openly showed her contempt for the “basket of deplorables” in the electorate who clung to old-fashioned views. And though it is a little too early to know for sure, the same slide from zenith to nadir now looks to be in progress for Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who seems to find it incomprehensible that majority opinion does not endorse her radical stance on gender self-ID or consider it kind.
During his own halcyon days, Tony Blair once told me he worked on the basis of “seven years and then they hate you”. He ended up stretching his term as PM to a full decade in an apparent bid to prove his point. Ms Ardern has been in power since 2017. So her sixth sense of when she has delighted the electorate for long enough, though rationalised as personal burn-out, would appear to be spot on. Ms Sturgeon, by contrast, is nine years in.
I don’t think that one minister resigning in one country has much direct effect on a minister in a different country, with a different agenda, different politics and different motivation, but then again, I’m not a political journalist, so what do I know.
Seems weird that a Welsh conservative is so invested in promoting articles deriding the leader of a country he’s never visited.
[deleted]
“The global centre-Left is in mourning after the shocking news that its favourite daughter is to leave the political stage.”
The Telegraph literally can’t get past the first sentence without spewing shite. Were they ever really a serious newspaper? Did something happen to them?
Imagine seeing a leader have the grace, humility, and self-awareness to bow out at the top of their game, rather than after they’ve broken their own laws and lied to parliament or cost the country 50 billion quid, and thinking they’ve failed!
Is the telegraph some sort of conspiracy against female leaders?
With her husband as CEO of the SNP, it’s about time the Family Business was broken up.
They only let the finance guy back (after Hubby threw him out of his job) because he knows where the cash is.
Said from a non-SNP voting area of Scotland….and don;t we know it!
> And yet the political forces of gravity, and the return of objective reality, are now holding Ms Ardern to account
The Telegraph: bringing you objective reality since… oh… fucking never.
Getting the Telegraph to shut-up about the SNP is like trying to get a chew-toy out of a dogs mouth. They’re determined to be a complete bunch of psychos about it.
We’re about a month away from a Telegraph columnist posting their Game of Thrones fantasies, featuring Sturgeon.
Nicola Sturgeon as the next leader of New Zealand. How very odd.
I wasn’t aware of the rule that said because a young charismatic woman resigns as PM of one country, a dull old trout from another must follow suit…
Funny, they don’t run this sort of trash article anytime a random male head of state steps down.
“The global centre-Left is in mourning”
[Citation needed]
The Guardian at least seems to be praising her:
[Jacinda Ardern knew when to quit. Unlike some other politicians I could mention](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/19/jacinda-ardern-quit-prime-minister-new-zealand)
[Jacinda Ardern’s graceful departure is the personification of modern democratic ideals](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/19/jacinda-ardern-new-zealand-pm-resignation-modern-democratic-ideals)