You’ve got to hand it to Jacinda Ardern – haven’t you? A thumping victory for her Labor Party in the recent General Election; the best record in the world when it comes to the Coronavirus – only 25 deaths, compared with the UK’s 4,000 and the US’s 200,000; a much admired response to a deadly terrorist attack; and all this while pregnant, giving birth, and presumably nurturing the baby while still in office as PM. And all without the benefit of an Eton education!

Of course there are other factors involved. NZ is a small island country, 1400 miles from the nearest landmass. That must make controlling the virus easier. Its cities are smaller, and so far as we know the virus can’t be spread by sheep. There may be other things to be said against Jacinda: I’ve read, for example, that she’s ‘not socialist enough’. But she has had to rule as part of a coalition up to now. Now that Labor is on its own, we might see more progressive policies. And in the meantime she’s a hero to all of us, and a poke in the eye to all those who held that women couldn’t rule in a womanly way.

(By the way: is it ‘Labor’ or ‘Labour’ in New Zealand? Australia has Americanized the spelling; I’m hoping NZ hasn’t.)