Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Ryan Bridge: We've been reminded our present day politicians aren't up to much

Transcript

Ryan Bridge: We've been reminded our present day politicians aren't up to much · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's hard listening to all the tributes for Jim Bolger
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: and to not feel like a little bit like we're
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: being ripped off or short changed by our current crop
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: of leaders. A few short generations ago, this country was
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: a completely different place, completely different place, before the internet,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: before the phones, before all the anxiety, before career politicians.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Politicians now come straight out of school into Uni, into
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the debating club, into the student union, then straight into parliament.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Jim Bolger was in parliament a very long time, sure,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: but he had a productive life before it, leaving school
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: at fifteen and into work, hard work, manual work on
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the farm in Taranaki and then later in Tequiti. Now
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: it's straight from school into parliament. Have you watched Parliament
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: TV lately? This is something I do and my grandma
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: do very regularly. We've always done it, and we always
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: compare notes. We are both so unimpressed. You've got MPs
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: who literally don't know how to ask a question. It's
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: like watching a video buffering no idea about standing orders,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: no idea about the rules that govern the place, and
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: no real apparent care to learn either. Just walk in,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: full of entitlement, sit down and start yelling. One of
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the most important tools in the modern MP's toolbox is
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: the unwavering ability to take offense at anything and everything
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: in tolerance for another's point of view. The antithesis, by
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: the way of Jim Bolger, is now commonplace. Where once
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: there was decency, there is mistrust, wisdom's being usurped by incompetence,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: and decorums being biffed out the window and replaced with petulance.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: People aren't recognized for their standing in the community and
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: voted into parliament, which is what used to happen. They're
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: there because politics is now an industry, and more importantly,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: nobody else would hire them and pay what we do
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: for more from early edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: to News Talk set be from five am weekdays, or
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio