OPINION: How many people did Speaker Trevor Mallard radicalise today? | Martyn Bradbury

OPINION: How many people did Speaker Trevor Mallard radicalise today?

The fiasco response to the rag-tag rebellion of anti-mandate protestors today risks enormous ramifications to New Zealand's stability this year, and it all falls on the shoulders of Speaker Trevor Mallard.

Let me be clear.

I have very little time for these protestors. Most inhabit a lunatic fringe world of Facebook conspiracies mixed with an appalling lack of general knowledge. I don't believe this Government is even remotely close to 'fascist' and I agree with the public health mandates as the most sensible way for us to navigate a once in a century pandemic.

These Q-Anon lunatics, these Crystal Karens, these dispossessed and alienated face real economic stress from the mandates and they have as much legitimate right to protest as anyone.

I saluted the police yesterday for holding the line, for while these disaffected flotsam and jetsam have every right to protest, the hallowed ground of Parliament must never be breached.

In the end our so-called "insurrectionists" yesterday couldn't even push past the Police line and a mere 3 were arrested.

This was our democracy at its best, people protesting but the State not heavy-handing anyone.

This fiasco was already splintering as different groups turned on each other late last night with various leaders venting online their fury at other factions taking over.

The proper response should have been to allow them to punch out all their energy and just fade away. They were already on the verge of implosion and they didn't have the numbers to really threaten Parliament.

So what happened instead?

Speaker Trevor Mallard, a politician with a long history of anger problems, threw a tantrum this morning and called on the police to clear the grounds.

It was a dangerous decision.

Let's not forget the Occupy movement in 2011 stayed 3 and a half months, so let's not pretend allowing these confused and frightened protestors the space to puff this all out wasn't a possibility.

Trevor's personal ego and 'respect my authority' arrogance decided to clear the grounds and start what we saw today and the only question is how many recruits has his temper tantrum created?

Again, I don't agree with these protestors, and Parliament is hallowed ground, but this could have been handled far better than Trevor's temper tantrum has allowed.

He has recruited people by sending in the cops when he could have just played a longer game and shown patience.

Instead he deliberately sent the State into melee mode and that has only provided propaganda to the most extreme fringes of the New Zealand political spectrum.

Trevor Mallard has given very unstable people a righteous grievance today, someone within the Executive, the Government, must be urgently called upon to reign Mallard in lest his anger issues snooker us into a spiral of radicalisation that spawns political violence.