Go well Ashley Bloomfield

Written By: - Date published: 8:28 am, April 10th, 2022 - 31 comments
Categories: david clark, health, jacinda ardern, public services, republic, uncategorized - Tags:

With a sense of regret for many of us Ashley Bloomfield announced his pending resignation as Director General of Health.

Some of us, probably most of the country, think Ash should be honoured for his contribution to Aotearoa and for seeing us through Covid.

There is a diversity of views.  Some think that Ash has been the leader of a World Government sponsored attempt to inject us all with chips to allow us all to be controlled.  Some seemed to be cheering for him to fail for political advantage.  Most of us are grateful although a few have bought the grumpy cool ade that National has been splashing around and think things are terrible.

If you think about the position the country is in, the sustained attacks that he has been subject to and the intense calm he always displayed his performance has been remarkable.

Who can forget the initial claims that the MIQ system was leaking like a sieve and the repeated questions about why everyone was not tested on day 11?  MIQ held the virus at bay until it was overwhelmed by Omicron.

Or the claims that PPE distribution was a disaster. While it may not have been pristine the good workers at our health coal face have coped.

Or the repeated claims that we should be allowed to use Rat Tests from the start.  Looking back the centralised testing and result gathering was the best thing that we could do.

Or the claims that the vaccine rollout was a disaster.  With world beating figures and a health system that has withstood the pressure of Omicron reality would beg to differ.

If you want to read all of the attacks rolled into one check out this Mike Hosking column.  And question if he occupies the same reality as the rest of us.

This passage is that dripping with negativity it faces the prospect of internally combusting:

Has he done a good job? I’m not sure how much of what he did was him versus what the government made him do. How much of a puppet was he for an inexperienced government that clung to the public service for dear life because they couldn’t make a decision for themselves?

What I do know is we made him a bigger deal than he should have been. Saint Ashley came about because too many got sucked in by his calm demeanour and those mad days when we literally got freaked out by the fear-mongering, the teddies in the window, the team of 5 million bollocks and the “be kind” mantra.

Nothing but relentless negativity.  It is almost as if Hosking is wanting the system to fail just so the Government can be embarrassed.

The opposition has also engaged in relentless negativity.  As an example there was an earlier attack on New Zealand offering humanitarian aid to a UN worker in Fiji. There was more recent occasions where Bishop accused Bloomfield of misleading the public over testing capability and over the supposed requisitioning of RAT tests.  To highlight National’s sensitivity over Bloomfield there was the occasion where they asked who had invited Bloomfield to a T20 cricket game.

Labour’s support for Bloomfield was mostly excellent, apart from this effort by David Clark to throw him under the bus.  Clark’s subsequent demotion had a sense of karma about it.

Although having said that there is this really weird piece written by Barry Soper who subsequently announced he was also going to spend more time with his family.  His column is Hootenish in its ability to pour unsourced bile into every sentence.

As a staunch Republican I oppose the use of knighthoods even for people who have made significant contributions to the country.  In Ashley Bloomfield’s case I am willing to make an exception.

31 comments on “Go well Ashley Bloomfield ”

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  1. Robert Guyton 1
    10 April 2022 at 8:46 am

    There is a concerted, co-ordinated on-line attack being made upon Bloomfield's reputation. The parliament-grounds occupiers and their hangers-on have mobilised as armchair freedom-fighters. Their work can be seen also in the rapid increase in hateful comments about Jacinda Ardern across social media. This is not an inconsequential development, imo.

  2. Ad 2
    10 April 2022 at 8:57 am

    Credit where credit is due, he did a good job.

    Since 95% of Cabinet decisions follow advice from officials, such key officials are the primary guiding power of our politics.

    Because they hold this power we need more scrutiny of them, not less. With the dissolution of DHBs we will see one major area for leadership accountability gone.

    Most, like say Geoff Dangerfield, can now only lead lives of quiet satisfaction, when they know they are responsible for such monuments as SH1 to Warkworth including the toll road, the entire Waikato expressway system, the Canterbury network rebuild, and the like.

    Others deep in the past like Roderick Deane shift from Treasury to head of all electricity, and from there to Fletchers and banking. He was the guy who corporatised most of the state from the inside.

    There are the occasional hit-men like our own bureaucratic napoleon Brian Roche who head whole entities like NZPost, then go further into full structural rebuilds.

    Others like Sir Peter Gluckman manage to reinvent themselves into futures thinkers.

    There is not a single Minister below Minister of Finance I can think of who has weilded more than any major Departmental head. Apart maybe Jim Anderton.

  3. Reality 3
    10 April 2022 at 9:19 am

    The public quickly recognised Ashley Bloomfield was simply a thoroughly very genuine, capable, calm, intelligent, admirable human being and they responded to those qualities which are not often seen on tv from people in the public eye. We knew he was working very long hours on our behalf and were grateful. We knew he cared deeply about how NZ was coping with Covid. We saw his quiet humour. He was never rude or impatient. Oh that there were more like him.

    • Heather Grimwood 3.1
      10 April 2022 at 10:23 am

      To Reality at 3 : No-one could have expressed Ashley Bloomfield's qualities and success better. Thank you. His sincere genuine nature was there for all to see, as was the occasional weariness in recent times.

      Consider too the disgusting flak that goes on in the background. He and his family deserve the early retirement he has chosen.

      • Anne 3.1.1
        10 April 2022 at 10:48 am

        QFT Heather Greenwood. Reality has cemented in reality.

        I admit to shedding a tear when I heard Bloomfield was going. A very intelligent, competent and unassuming person. A gentleman and a scholar. That is the problem for the likes of the narcissistic Hosking and Soper. They know they can never come within coo-ee of his status among the vast bulk of the population. Take for example this comment from Hosking:

        Saint Ashley came about because too many got sucked in by his calm demeanour and those mad days when we literally got freaked out by the fear-mongering, the teddies in the window, the team of 5 million bollocks and the “be kind” mantra.

        Hatred, bitterness, jealousy and venom all rolled into one.

        Not even the delightful teddies in the window that kept so many thousands of children excited and happy and put smiles on more than a few adult faces was free from his latest rant. Soper was no better. Fact-free conspiracy theories abounded in all their idiotic glory in his contribution.

  4. RedLogix 4
    10 April 2022 at 9:28 am

    While I expressed some dissent from the globalised Big Pharma driven narrative – I have never thought Bloomfield was doing anything other than his very best in an incredibly difficult situation. Few public servants have won our respect for their authentic dedication to public service as he has.

    Well done and best wishes with his future plans.

  5. Dennis Frank 5
    10 April 2022 at 9:40 am

    Yeah a knighthood is the appropriate move & Ardern ought to make it happen in the QB honours window. The Hosking rant is worthless. Clueless dork syndrome.

    Soper's signal is worth considering though. I don't mind giving the new system a try-out, and having a couple of women running it is no problem in principle. See how they go. He's right to imply that Bloomfield's timing is good.

  6. Shanreagh 6
    10 April 2022 at 10:38 am

    What a horrible person Mike Hosking is…but we knew this didn't we?

    And to note that in some houses in my neighbourhood the teddies are still there in the windows and a couple also have the coloured in Easter eggs that children were encouraged to cut out, colour in and stick onto the windows. These things got many of us through as did the knowledge that the Govt had every aspect under control right down to making sure the Easter Bunny and Father Christmas were able to come to NZ and would not be stopped at the border.

    I think he should get a knighthood. As Reality says:

    The public quickly recognised Ashley Bloomfield was simply a thoroughly very genuine, capable, calm, intelligent, admirable human being and they responded to those qualities which are not often seen on tv from people in the public eye

    For instance there would not be many who who say that Soper and Hosking have any of these qualities now. Soper, when I knew him many moons ago, used to be a genuine (his days of promoting Southland products around Parliament were fun and would have made a difference to many Sthld businesses), and capable person but seems to have become infected with screechiness and gotcha-ism.

    NB Mickey ‘Kool aid’ not ‘cool ade’

  7. Peter 7
    10 April 2022 at 11:03 am

    When Hosking finishes in his job there will be many quotes to use on his last hurrah.

    The horror to consider that such an erudite, sagacious, brave media god "literally got freaked out by the fear-mongering" and the thought of a "be kind" mantra.

    Oh the humanity.

    Bloomfield doing his job reminds me of ambulance drivers and police going to a road crash at 3.00 a.m. on a miserable morning to assist some drunken yobbos smashed up when their speeding car has crashed. The helpers get abused, treated like crap and carry on doing what needs to be done through the insults and assaults. Instead of going home.

    The victims are helped and saved in spite of themselves.

  8. Reality 8
    10 April 2022 at 12:44 pm

    Hosking's vile nastiness is appalling. He never ever has a fair or reasonable word to say about anyone who is not wearing a blue rosette. He has an over-inflated opinion of himself and has personality defects that run deep.

    To be so pathologically unable to make a gracious comment on Dr Bloomfield's resignation says it all.

    • AB 8.1
      10 April 2022 at 3:06 pm

      True – but Hosking is a useful idiot, More interesting and worthy of investigation are the people who choose to platform him.

  9. Ric 9
    10 April 2022 at 2:43 pm

    I found his explanations lucid and his calmness inspiring. Thank you Ashley

  10. Kiwijoker 10
    10 April 2022 at 3:04 pm

    Kipling said it best

    If you can keep your head when all about you

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;

    If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

    Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

    If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

    If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;

    If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

    Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

    If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

    And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

    If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,

    And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

    If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

    If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

    If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

    Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

    n/a

    Source: A Choice of Kipling's Verse (1943)

    More About this Poem

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  11. Mike the Lefty 11
    10 April 2022 at 4:37 pm

    Dr Bloomfield was a credit to those who believe in making decisions based on fact and evidence, as opposed to narcissistic breakfast show hosts who make decisions based on personal whim.

  12. McFlock 12
    10 April 2022 at 8:49 pm

    The contrast between Hosking and Bloomfield is stark.

    Hosking has been paid and encouraged to foment outrage and hyperbole to increase media engagement, in the same way that Facebook sees us engage with content more in anger than approval.

    Bloomfield has been trained to stare genuine catastrophe (be it personal to a patient, or public) in the face, focus on the essential steps to overcome it, and help others to do the same.

    Must be difficult for Hosking to see someone with the latter training so prominent in the public gaze – it really highlights his own shortcomings as a human being.

  13. RP Mcmurphy 13
    11 April 2022 at 7:58 am

    he has done his duty and done the country proud.

  14. Dottie 14
    11 April 2022 at 12:20 pm

    Thank you Ashley you were TOPS.

  15. Ad 15
    11 April 2022 at 12:34 pm

    Ardern's note from the weekend on her own exhaustion is our fair warning if she decided to step off the treadmill and make herself unavailable for the 2023-4 election.

    Coronavirus: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reveals toll COVID-19 pandemic took on her | Newshub

    MoH clearly has its own succession plan underway.

    Labour needs one badly.

  16. Andy 16
    13 April 2022 at 10:05 am

    A dead kid this week due to the jab was described as "an unfortunate experience" by AB.

    [That sounds like something you made up, but you could avoid a ban by providing a link + quote. Until then you’re in Pre-Moderation – Incognito]