SELF REFLECTION

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But enough of that. We're not talking about Richard (of RBB) here although he does delude himself quite a lot in his blog posts and comments on others' posts.

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You may have noticed this survey in USA: LATEST USA PRESIDENTIAL SURVEY by The American Political Science Society who regularly survey 154 academics who specialise in the field.

Donald Trump, the 45th president was rated the worst president in USA presidential history. 

The five worst presidents were listed  in order from 5th worst to worst as William Henry Harrison, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan and Donald Trump. It's no mean feat for Trump to be rated worse than those other four odious and generally berated arseholes.

At the top of the list were the top five best presidents who were Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Rooseveldt, George Washington, Teddy Rooseveldt and Thomas Jefferson.

Barack Obama came in at seventh best and Joe Biden at fourteenth best.

This is a big blow to Trump's ego but it hasn't stopped him from proclaiming at rallies that he is the number one president of all time. With abilities to read polls like that and his dodgy accounting skills it's no wonder that the idiot now owes half a billion dollars in civil court cases he's lost.

"I still love me."

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This got me thinking of our own deluded and pompous little ass - Chris Luxon, our 42nd prime minister. 

He thinks that he is a good prime minister and his self reflection tells him that he's well-liked by everyone. Maybe, instead of preening in the mirror, he should read what New Zealanders are saying about him on-line like these two:

Yes, Luxon has shown himself to be gutless in pandering to the two minor parties that make up the coalition government. Most of the pandering involves dismantling the former Labour government’s policies like the formal end of any work on light rail in Auckland, the scrapping of Three Waters and the backing down on smoke-free laws. 

Here are some of the 'done' and 'to be completed' things that he and his cronies are doing:

DONE: Stop work on the Income Insurance Scheme.
DONE: Stop work on Industry Transformation Plans.
DONE: Stop work on the Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme.
TO BE COMPLETED: Begin efforts to double renewable energy production, including a NPS (national policy statement) on Renewable Electricity Generation.
DONE: Withdraw central government from Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM).
DONE: Meet with councils and communities to establish regional requirements for recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle and other recent major flooding events.
DONE: Make any additional Orders in Council needed to speed up cyclone and flood recovery efforts.
TO BE COMPLETED: Start reducing public sector expenditure, including consultant and contractor expenditure.
DONE: Introduce legislation to narrow the Reserve Bank’s mandate to price stability.

 TO BE COMPLETED: Introduce legislation to remove the Auckland Fuel Tax.

DONE: Cancel fuel tax hikes.
TO BE COMPLETED: Begin work on a new GPS reflecting the new Roads of National Significance and new public transport priorities.
DONE: Repeal the Clean Car Discount scheme by 31 December 2023.
DONE: Stop blanket speed limit reductions and start work on replacing the Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits 2022.
DONE: Stop central government work on the Auckland Light Rail project.
DONE: Repeal the Fair Pay Agreement legislation.
DONE: Introduce legislation to restore 90-day trial periods for all businesses.
TO BE COMPLETED: Start work to improve the quality of regulation.
DONE: Introduce legislation to restore 90-day trial periods for all businesses.
TO BE COMPLETED: Start work to improve the quality of regulation.
DONE: Introduce legislation to repeal the Water Services Entities Act 2022.
DONE: Repeal the Spatial Planning and Natural and Built Environment Act and introduce a fast-track consenting regime.
TO BE COMPLETED: Begin to cease implementation of new Significant Natural Areas and seek advice on operation of the areas.
TO BE COMPLETED: Take policy decisions to amend the Overseas Investment Act 2005 to make it easier for build-to-rent housing to be developed in New Zealand.
TO BE COMPLETED: Begin work to enable more houses to be built, by implementing the Going for Housing Growth policy and making the Medium Density Residential Standards optional for councils.
DONE: Abolish the previous government’s prisoner reduction target.
TO BE COMPLETED: Introduce legislation to ban gang patches, stop gang members gathering in public, and stop known gang offenders from communicating with one another.
TO BE COMPLETED: Give Police greater powers to search gang members for firearms and make gang membership an aggravating factor at sentencing.
DONE: Stop taxpayer funding for section 27 cultural reports.
TO BE COMPLETED: Introduce legislation to extend eligibility to offence-based rehabilitation programmes to remand prisoners.
TO BE COMPLETED: Begin work to crack down on serious youth offending.
TO BE COMPLETED: Enable more virtual participation in court proceedings.
TO BE COMPLETED: Begin to repeal and replace Part 6 of the Arms Act 1983 relating to clubs and ranges.
DONE: Stop all work on He Puapua (obligations regarding a UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples).
DONE: Improve security for the health workforce in hospital emergency departments.
DONE: Sign an MoU with Waikato University to progress a third medical school.
 DONE: By 1 December 2023, lodge a reservation against adopting amendments to WHO health regulations to allow the government to consider these against a “national interest test”.
DONE: Require primary and intermediate schools to teach an hour of reading, writing and maths per day starting in 2024.
DONE: Ban the use of cellphones in schools.
DONE: Appoint an Expert Group to redesign the English and maths curricula for primary school students.
DONE: Begin disestablishing Te Pūkenga (Te Pūkenga was the name for the super-polytech institute established by the former government, merging all 16 existing institutions into one).

and others.

Now, don't get me wrong, I think that there are some good initiatives in there but, unfortunately there's a lot of bad stuff that's going to hurt the average Kiwi for quite some time. A lot of it is peevishness in undoing anything that Labour did. Much of it is the obsequious pandering to Peters and Seymour (and to his waiting in the wings vultures like Nicola Willis). The rest is insane and knee jerk reactions to gain support from the right-wing base that National is standing on. Time will prove that this 100 day plan is a bad idea and that Chris Luxon is one of the worst prime ministers that we have ever had. At number 42 he very nearly mirrors Trump at '45'. Maybe he can match him at being the worst.

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To conclude, here is a comparable list of best and worst New Zealand prime ministers.
This list is made up not only from my preferences but from (various) political commentators and academics who specialise in the field.

The bottom five, from fifth worst to worst are:

5th worst.

 William Fox, 1856, 1861-1862, 1869-1872, 1873. 

He confiscated three million acres of Māori land then blamed them for starting the Māori Wars. To add insult to injury he then was behind the early prohibition movement in New Zealand thereby alienating both Māori and Pakeha.

4th worst.

William Massey, 1912-1925.

Yes, I know that Wellington has a significant memorial to him that is rumoured to contain not only his mouldering old remains but his ghost as well. That's not necessarily a good thing and, I remind you that this old prick said:

"NATURE INTENDED NEW ZEALAND TO BE A WHITE MAN'S COUNTRY, AND IT MUST BE KEPT AS SUCH." 

Yes, he was a white supremacist - a racist. We don't need to celebrate people like him. One good thing is that the university that bears his name - Massey University - is only afloat through encouraging foreign (and dark-skinned) students to come to New Zealand to study its courses.

3rd worst.

Richard Seddon, 1893-1906

He was a populist  and fancied himself. In modern days he'd be like Winston Peters - bolshy, thinking he was smarter than others and a bit of a bully. They called him King Dick which reminds me of that White Sport Coat and Pink Carnation Society joker. Do you know that he compared the Chinese to monkeys? Certainly not the kind of guy that I'd want remembered as a good prime minister.

2nd worst.

Christopher Luxon, 2023 - ?
I'll put Luxon here in the position of the second worst prime minister above Shonkey but suspect that he will be relegated to the position of worst prime minister ever sometime soon.

Like Key he's a 'wide boy' having made a lot of money in business and, like Key assumed the position with no real political education. Unlike Key though, who had a rat's cunning, Luxon is a bit naive as shown by his piss poor handling of the Premier's House fiasco. 

Worst.

John Key, 2008-2016.

Key was a chancer businessman - a wide boy or, like Del Trotter - a 'barrow boy' who made money off the misfortunes of others. He wasn't particularly clever but had the eye for a deal - kind of like Donald Trump but not as unsuccessful. He also had an eye for young women particularly if they had pony-tail hairstyles and was lucky that this didn't get him on the 'Me Too' list. He humiliated himself and New Zealand on American talk-shows  like the disgusting David Letterman show at every opportunity. He frankly gave me the shivers with his smarmy, appeal to the old ladies bullshit while using his National Government powers to rob them of their savings.

You may of course have your own selections which you wish to share. If so I suggest that you post these on Robert The Catholic Guy's blog. He needs the comments so, in the words of Jacinda Ardern "be kind."



This then leaves us with who I (and the professional political pundits) think are New Zealand's top five prime ministers.

The top five from fifth best to best are:

5th best

Jim Bolger, 1990-1997

Bolger was an interesting prime minister who seemed to have been a bit conflicted about his position in politics. As a National minister he weakened the unions and championed neo-liberal policies, but then professed an understanding and liking of Socialism. He actually would have made a good Labour minister or prime minister. I think that he cared a lot for New Zealand and the average Kiwi.

3rd equal best

Norman Kirk, 1972-1974
Kirk headed an amazing Labour government that had the balls to take on the big players. He pulled all New Zealand troops from Vietnam, refused to give visas to an all-white South African rugby team, and pressured the French to stop testing nuclear weapons in the Pacific. Kirk died suddenly, and there are conspiracy theories about this from him having been assassinated by anyone from Robert Muldoon through to the CIA. The fact is, it was a great loss to New Zealand. 

3rd equal best

David Lange, 1984-1989
Like Kirk, Lange was a big man in stature but also in gutsiness.. He was very intelligent, a trait that puts our current dullard and that guy John Key to shame. He too wasn't afraid to take on the bully boys of the world whether they were so-called allies or outright enemies. It's just a shame that snakes in his own government like Roger Douglas fucked it all up.

2nd best.

Helen Clark, 1999-2008

Clark is without doubt one of the most powerful people in the world. She was an outstanding prime minister and didn't take shit from anyone whether they were fellow or opposition politicians, world leaders or journalists. She called the snotty John Campbell a "sanctimonious little creep".  No wonder she did so well at the United Nations.

Best.

Michael Joseph Savage, 1935-1940

Savage was a brilliant speaker and very intelligent and, like Norm Kirk, a man of the people. Before becoming a politician he was a miner, a flax cutter, a ditch digger and worked in many hard jobs. These honed his strength to help him as a boxer and a weightlifter. No wonder he was so popular with the nation. He was also an accomplished dancer so - eat your heart out John Key - the dames of the day would have loved him more than you. When Savage died, 50,000 mourners filed past his casket. For decades, portraits of Savage hung in thousands of family homes around the country. It's difficult to imagine any other New Zealand leader inspiring such affection.

I'm left in a quandary now. I would have liked to give a best equal rating but unfortunately, or fortunately Michel Joseph Savage was such a titan it's hard to place anyone next to him. In this case then I'm going to make an honorary mention of someone who in my lifetime is the best that I've experienced:

Honorary best.

Jacinda Ardern, 2017-2023

Ardern was 'one out of the box'. No one has encouraged the nation as much since Savage and yet also polarised the country as well. Her downfall was social media and the rise of the mean and ignorant conspiracy theorists who didn't have the stomach to do the right thing. Ardern helped New Zealanders through a period that was the worst since the Second World War. Her leadership during the Covid crisis might well have saved a quarter of a million NZ lives with the lockdown measures, mask wearing mandates and vaccination. Her handling of the Mosque shootings tragedy and immediate anti-gun response (now being weakened by the gutless coalition government) was world leading. She was my hero and I hope that future historians will edit out all the shit and concentrate on the good stuff.