by Geoffrey Churchman

Those who read the social media will have noticed increasing incidents of car thefts/break-ins here in Waikanae and in the last two weeks there have been two reported incidents of children being accosted on their way to school, which has been almost unknown in Waikanae.

Things are worse in America where gun violence is sharply up this year — reports.

The Legacy Media has to take its share of the blame for general neurosis — in Jacindaland it has been a constant barrage of “we’re all going to drown from melting polar ice caps” (no, we’re not) “right wing extremists are going to shoot minorities” (give us a break) “coronavirus is going to kill tens of thousands” (oh yeah?) and “young people can’t afford to buy a house any more” (there’s truth to that in most of the country).

But Lockdowns and anxiety over jobs, inability to visit loved ones in other countries and massive hype on the consequences of the disease have had their effect. You can’t expect people to live in fear for lengthy periods, see harsh treatment from police for not obeying arbitrary restrictions, and there not to be an impact on people’s mental health.

Last week we reproduced Mike King’s open letter to Dear Leader about the dire mental health situation that she promised to fix in 2018 and hasn’t.

What we have seen from the Jacinda government is a huge increase in public servants in government bureaucracies — commentary — but no recognition of how the worsening problems really need to be tackled.