Saint Jacinda’s immigration clampdown

For several years now New Zealand Jacinda Ardern has enjoyed the status of being one of the world’s leading liberal icons. The popular premier has backed progressive policies like bereavement leave for miscarriage, gun control reforms and tackling period poverty. Her handling of the pandemic – completely shutting the country off from the rest of the world – was rewarded by the voters last October when she romped home in a landslide.

Predictably of course such actions have been greeted with an orgy of fawning praise from politicians here in Britain. Labour MPs gushed over Jacinda’s ‘real leadership’ and suggested that: ‘Jacinda shows what a competent, moderate, progressive, emotionally intelligent, immensely likeable & unifying Labour leader can achieve.’ The First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, congratulated Ardern on her win and ‘fine victory speech’ and then spent the next six months trying to get the New Zealand PM to reply to her on Twitter.