Prog-Gress?

Over recent days, the media (and, not least Matthew Hooton in the Herald) have, not surprisingly, been full of comment on the failure of Christopher Luxon’s much-touted negotiating skills to materialise. It may be, however, that the episode casts yet further light on his personality defects.

Keen-eyed and keen-eared observers may well have heard Luxon talk repeatedly about the “progress” that either has or has not been made. “Progress” is of course desperately needed, but that is not exactly what Luxon talked about. He described something that sounded like “prog-gress”.

Now, the prefix “pro” denotes moving forward, but “prog” has no meaning. So, we are left with an etymological puzzle – and, in any case, why does a New Zealand Prime Minister find it necessary to sound like an American?

Could it be that we have elected a leader who is unsure of his own identity and who finds it necessary to pretend to be something he clearly is not? If so, we are in deeper trouble than we might have thought.