Saint Jacinda backs a two-tier society

For many so-called liberals, Jacinda Ardern seemed to be the perfect premier. Warm, empathetic, progressive, above all – moderate – the New Zealand Prime Minister was lionised by the London intelligentsia as the ideal model of a liberal, centrist leader who saved her country by locking down during the pandemic. 

But now the shine is coming off the blessed Jacinda as some in the West start to see her all-too human failings. Having managed to irritate both right and left with her clamp down on immigration and complacency on China, Ardern has now admitted what many others have been scared to admit: that her Covid restrictions will mean the emergence of a de-facto two-tier society.

During a video interview, the PM admitted that the current rules grant vaccinated citizens more freedoms. Asked by a journalist from the New Zealand Herald who asked: ‘You’ve basically said, and you probably don’t see it like this, but two different classes of people if you’re vaccinated or unvaccinated.