I don’t think the public have any idea of the behind the scenes meltdown now occurring within National. There are plenty of decent right wingers who all have ethical standards who have looked at what their leaders have been doing and are as disgusted as the rest of us by the revelations inside Dirty Politics.
To gain some inkling, listen to Matthew Hooton throwing the Prime Minister under a bus on Radio NZ yesterday.
Hooton is clearly stating that Key’s claims that he wasn’t briefed and that it was his office that was briefed on releasing Secret Intelligence Service information are either a bare faced lie or gross incompetence unbefitting the role of Prime Minister. When right wing commentators who are getting whispers in their ears from deep state are saying that, you know that Key has lost the trust of the civil service and that it is now only a matter of time before they start leaking.
Judith Collins is now a dead woman walking. The millisecond after the election finishes, Collins and all Lusk’s client MPs like that nasty little Jami-Lee Ross, Sam Lotu-llga, Chris Tremain, Louise Upston, Mark Mitchell and Nicky Wagner are all toast. They will be demoted so quickly into irrelevance they won’t have time to invoice Lusk before they are swept away.
If National win, they are all gone after lunchtime, if National lose, they will all be gone before lunchtime. Collins, Ross, Lotu-llga, Tremain, Upston, Mitchell and Wagner are just wrecked political brands now and no one wants any association with them inside the Party.
If National do lose, Key will leave immediately, he doesn’t hang around with losers, so who will be the next leader? Judith is so mad with power lust she still thinks she has a chance as leader post Key, that belief is delusional. Joyce is hated by too many people inside National to ever have a chance of leader and Bill English simply doesn’t have the charisma for the job. What National will do in the meantime is probably put Bennett in as leader until a better patsy can be found for the role.
National have built their raft of unpopular policies under the shining popularity of nice friendly Mr Key without ever believing that strategy could falter, not for one second did any of them consider what would happen if Key was suddenly revealed as far monstrous than they had painted him as.
With the Ede-Slater emails about to be released by Whaledump, the worst is yet to come.
Without Key, National are a hard right Government passing law for the richest amongst us at the cost of the poor. Who knew whaleoil could damage teflon so badly?
fyi C Tremain is leaving Parliament.
I so hope Bennett becomes National leader – it’ll be like post Muldoon especially with that fucktard in charge
Hmmmm, Paula Bennett as National Leader?
Dunno, maybe I’m missing something but I can’t see it. There’s something about her that doesn’t inspire leadership…
But who knows, I guess if it’s a choice between English and Bennett, the Nats might choose her. English is a safe pair of hands, but as you say, personality wise he’s not exactly “star quality”…
Personally, I pray to the political gods that the Nats choose Judith Collins. She’d make National unelectable for the next ten years.
Where is Brownlee is all this?
As a very senior Nat shouldn’t he be next in line?
Brownlee is not PM material (although he would make a great leader of the opposition). And, BTW, he has the highest integrity of all of them, despite his gruff exterior.
To be fair, I’d promote a street rat, a literal rat rodent, into leadership before I’d appoint Paula Bennett.
She is hated beyond regard in mainstream civilian life.
English would actually be the best pick.
Hasn’t Bill English had a go before? And didn’t last very long as leader?
I dunno Bomber, the lame stream media, that clearly has a far lower attention span than a five year old with ADD, have apparently already “moved on” from Dirty Politics – and imo Key’s Teflon coat seems mostly intact at this point. Smearing KDC never seems to get old for them though. I am somewhat surprised Key hasn’t cut Collins loose though – she’s just poison for National at this stage.
They’ve only moved on until the next whaledump revelation, and Hager’s meeting this Wednesday night will raise the ire of many.
Can’t wait!
Just a pity they had to schedule it the same night as the transport debate, now featuring Big Gerry as well as the heavy-hitters on transport from the other parties…
the MSM won’t bother covering both properly, whereas both deserve extensive coverage (though of course for totally different reasons). Bah.
Still more Whaledumps to come yet I suspect and then we have 15th September yet…goodness knows what is going to come out of that, but I think it too, will be big.
I think the ‘solid’ National, Radio Live listener and ‘jorno/ presenters’ have moved on but the ‘middle, center voters’ they all seem to want to impress appear to be exhibiting a rageing case of fury over Dirty Politics – or certainly the ones I’ve come across. All good for the election, I say.
He’s too scared she’d take him down with her. If you think his voice squeaks when he’s under serious questioning, imagine what he’d be like once the family jewels were in the Crusher’s grasp. No velvet glove there. After that, he’d make the Vienna Boys’ Choir sound like a bunch of bassos.
Chris Tremain retired in case you didn’t notice asnd his replacement will not win Napier!!
How exactly do you “know” what is about to be released by the hacker?
because the emails between Ede and Slater haven’t been released yet
I think it is true, I think they are grooming Bennett to be a caretaker party leader.
All along she has thought she will be the next Jenny Shipley. All the while not knowing they will deal to her like they did to Brash. Deluded.
It won’t matter in any case. As far as I can work out, the last NZ party leader to take over after an election loss and then win the next election was Muldoon. Not great odds for whoever takes over.
Whoever is waiting in the wings – and it could be Collins – is far more dangerous IMHO.
If Collins got the leadership of the Natsies, there’s the possibility she’d appoint Slater as her chief of staff/press secretary!
He could run his sordid WhaleOil blog from her office, with her approval and blessing, at our expense!
Nightmare stuff!
Bennett is nasty enough to be Natsy leader, well versed in the dark arts, so is well qualified for the position!
“He could run his sordid WhaleOil blog from her office, with her approval and blessing, at our expense!”
National spin, if this were to happen:
“Since becoming the leader of the National Party, I have ended the leaks. I have also contributed to a drop in unemployment.”
Actually…IF Collins wrote a book on ethics….it would be read extensively as subject matter in all journalistic degrees on how NOT to conduct all political and literary matters….
So perhaps she could gain meaningful employment as an author instead.
Precognitive stuff..
What happens, if National win the election, to John Key? Will he stay as PM? Or will he quit – he looks like he’s had enough.
Paula Bennett cannot lead her own departments as a minister. Her reputation is one of not having eaten much in the way of IQ enhancing food and of not having read much literature, she wants it all simple and cruising.
Yes, she is on a power trip, newly weds tend to get a bit of a “boost” in life. But all her superficial physical make over will not cover over the silliness, the immaturity, and the inability to understand complex matters or to speak coherently.
Simply wanting to lead does not make a leader, and NO, the best candidate for the moment would be Blinglish, to fill in until a new “Key” type expat “charmer” with a business or finance background is head hunted, recruited and flown in from New York or London.
Bennett could not organise a piss up in a brewery, and many at WINZ have a dim view of her.
I wonder if Jason Ede got in touch with Kim regarding the “life changing opportunity” he offered. The fact KDC is still soliciting more info makes me wonder if the info he has is sufficient…
No but Phil did, according to Kim Dotcom’s text messages to Wayne Tempero. Phil’s corporate job is clearly not paying enough, despite the huge profit the company has made this year.
If Key were to scrape through this election he’d stay until deposed or otherwise ‘removed from play’.
If the Gnats are defeated they might want to appoint a friendly looking sock puppet to restore their tattered image. Paula has hurt too many people, it needs to be someone who can look gracious in defeat. Grace is not a Gnat strong suit but nobody has more experience in that role than Paul Goldsmith.
I loved Politics on Natrad Monday morning when Hooton (truthfully) said Key was either a liar or grossly incompetent regarding the release of the sis information. THE NATIONAL SHIP IS SINKING!!
@stephanie fisher – agree. And if you look further up this page, you will see Matthew Hooton has posted a response comment re Gerry Brownlee, stating he has the most integrity of the lot of them.
Having been closely connected to the Natsy party, Hooton I guess would know a thing or two about the FJK bunch of shysters and could tell a few stories I bet!
Interesting times ahead!
The fact there is open discussion about Key as a failed leader is just great. Factor in that the serial liar Judith Collins has had to admit (Wednesday morning) that the privacy commissioner did not absolve her is another nail in her vain and arrogant coffin.
English is not fit as apart from not knowing where he lived his actions over housing support for himself and family would have seen him fired and the Police called if he had tried that with a corporate make him tarnished goods. There are no natural leaders in the National front bench only bullies of varying colours.
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