I have been remiss in not writing in this blog for a while now – some health challenges, moving house (and city), the military posting cycle and exhaustion from an extremely busy couple of years (the 17.7% attrition rate in the army is a contributing factor to that!) have meant that I ended last year a burnt-out shadow of my former self.

I shall rectify this, and shall recommence blogging.

I must also admit to having an overwhelming sense of pessimism about NZ which hindered my motivation to write NZ. More than any other Western country, NZ has thrown away any sense of work ethic and personal responsibility, and our institutional elites seem hell bent on destroying what was once a very good education system, military, public sector and an economy which was once the envy of the world.

With the resignation of Ms Ardern, a figure I regard as so completely overhyped and overrated as to quite possibly be one of the most ineffective country leaders of the last 70 years, dare I feel some more hope about this country?

I certainly don’t rate Chris Hipkins as being able to turn anything around – he has played a starring role in the continued degradation of our education system. And he has just as much experience outside politics as Ms Ardern and Mr Robertson and all the other student politicians turned political advisors turned politicians. But he will bring some more energy and optimism to a Labour caucus who were very much seeing the writing on the wall about their inevitable defeat.

Nor do I actually rate Christopher Luxon. No policy announcements, very little I can see in the way of idealism and no mongrel to take on a hostile media establishment trying to force woke religion down his (and our) throats.

But there is an election this year, and there is a swelling dissatisfaction amongst NZ about what has happened to our country not just in the last five years, but the last couple of generations (blame to go towards both major parties).

So I shall return to blogging. My main motivation is to analyse what sort of country my son is going to be born in and grow up in – he is only a couple of months away now. Will he go to a school with a teacher trying to convince him behind my back that he is actually a girl? Will his school teach him anything about maths and physics, or will it all be about post-colonial stress disorders which he owes reparations for? Will he be able to find a decent job? Will the taxes on his income cripple him? Will he ever be able to afford a house? Will I ever be able to afford a house for that matter?

Should I call it early and emigrate before he needs to start school? Or should I hold out in hope for this country of ours?