13,000

There's a lot going on today - the political circus in Westminster, an apparent political assassination in Japan, the ongoing war in Ukraine - but the only story that matters is this one: there were 13,344 new community cases of Covid-19 reported in Aotearoa today, and a further 23 deaths. That, and the government's repeated refusal to do anything at all about it - not even a public mask mandate, let alone work from home support or lockdowns. I've castigated Labour as chickenshits over the years - but now their chickenshittery has a bodycount: 1600 people so far, and between four and eight thousand a year on current numbers. And for what? So they can avoid criticism and bad headlines from certain noisy industries whose profitability depends on us all being exposed to risks.

Well, fuck that. The first duty of the government is to keep us safe. And Labour is failing that duty. And whether it is from cowardice or sociopathy is immaterial: I can never forgive them for it. And neither should you. A government which just lets us die is not worth anyone's support (some would say its not really a "government" at all).

And because some people will need it said explicitly: the other bunch also being sociopathic murderers isn't an excuse. Both major parties are failing the most basic test of governance, and fail to meet even the most minimal ethical standards we should expect from our "leaders". They need to do better, or fuck off.

Update: And the Ministry of Health is now saying there was a computer glitch, and today's number is only 9,318. Which is good, so far as it goes, but it really only delays the anger by a week.