The train wreck that is The National Party continues today with the announcement by leader for 53 days Todd Muller that he’s done his dash.
National’s leadership woes have been the story of the past decade. When Sir John Key knifed Bill English in the back and took over the leadership he was hailed as a savior. We were told how great it was that a CEO of Key’s stature would be for New Zealand. He took over from record surpluses and proceeded to give handouts to his rich mates, cut taxes, cut regulations, drive the economy via immigration and sell off assets. All the time on extreme borrowing.
The media swooned and labelled this a ‘rock star’ economy.
As the adulation and drooling continued Key paraded his vanity with things like the disastrous tea towel flag debacle, the handing over of sovereignty with the TPPA, the bungled Hollywood driven illegal raids on Kim Dotcom. Perhaps Key’s lasting legacy, after redefining a Honda Civic as an apartment for first homeless buyers, was his Dirty Politics campaign which he ran from the 9th Floor Prime Ministerial offices in our nation’s Parliament.
Despite the swooning admiration from the media at key’s ‘business management skills’ he failed in the first role of management.
He never trained a successor.
To the point when key decided it was no longer fun and threw in the towel he handed the job back to Bill English who promptly restored knighthoods and gave one to Key. Then he was gone.
Simon Bridges showed up Key’s poor succession plan when he took over the leadership and made a fool of himself, the party and to some extent New Zealand itself.
With abysmal polling Bridges was rolled by not one, but all, or National’s many factions who united temporarily to endorse Todd Muller.
He promoted Judith ‘Dirty Politic’ Collins to number 4 in the rankings and watched as leaks and infighting saw the polling actually get worse.
In the background the national tactics of Dirty Politics took over with campaigns to undermine the government’s insanely successful Covid19 response, culminating in the leaking of confidential personal health records being leaked to the media by seasoned dirtmonger and former president Michelle Boag. Hamish Walker fell on his sword, Boag was thrown out of her party roles, which included campaign executive of deputy leader and Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye.
No amount of damage control could prevent what happened next as Muller suffered a breakdown and, in a shock move to all, resigned as leader.
National is, to coin a phrase, a shambles.
But why?
Firstly because of Jacinda Ardern. We were told the stardust would soon fade. But all we’ve seen is, time after time, crisis after crisis, her leadership has shone through.
Secondly because we are becoming immune to the toxicity of the mainstream media thugs who prop up National. They’ve failed and their toxicity has resulted in a cynicism for their politicking from too many people to ignore.
Thirdly, and most importantly, is National itself.
The party has always been a ginger group of the right. But the right is deeply and bitterly divided. They’re wracked with ego and personal ambition and impatience. They feel obliged to govern and behave appallingly when in opposition. It’s just not a natural head-space for them. So they fight among themselves. And disgrace themselves.
Where to now?
Well, they’ve got a lot of problems. Ardern is a phenomenon that brings out the best in voters. They like to see how good we can all be. And she’s shown us enough of that to make it look easy. Labour itself isn’t doing too badly. The Greens are staying out of trouble and New Zealand First is probably never going to be forgiven by it’s National supporters for going with the dark side in 2017. But we can look forward to a Labour – Green government, probably no NZ First, and a rowdy opposition from National and whoever they can drag inb with them for the fight.
ACT, New Conservatives and rag tag of other extreme right wing groupings will all scramble for the maligned misfit votes and conspiracy loonies and hopefully eat themselves.
National needs a new leader today though. So who is it going to be?
First we need to accept that National can’t win this election, so who can lead them to defeat and still look good?
Luxon is being groomed but he’s their ace card. He can’t step up and lose. He’s out.
Enter the Dragon starlet Judith Collins is the natural leader for national, but she is far too toxic. Her corruption and Dirty Politics connections would be a god send in any campaign. She’d love it though and would think she’s doing well and she shredded the vote to single figures.
Brownlee is more than man enough to take the wheel and beach the ship so someone, anyone, can rebuild it for 2023. He’s also expendable. But appointing him would be an admission of failure and National hate looking like losers.
Nikki Kaye would my pick. She gives some degree of stability given that she’s deputy and can at least carry on the task of winning back some soft labour votes. And that is national’s job. To win back enough voters who have thumbed their noses at National’s internal problems and joined the Team of 5 Million
But anyway you look at National on July 14 2020, it’s a train wreck.
