Fight your corner Simon Bridges – the madness of National rolling a leader 4 months from the election

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So they are doing it.

The plummeting polls have spooked those lazy National Party MP suddenly facing what you and I face every day of the week post pandemic, unemployment.

Apparently unemployment is so terrifying to the list MPs that they will replace their own leader 4 months out from a general election.

This self interested panic is disgraceful.

Look, I will never vote for Simon Bridges in a million lifetimes, B-U-T if you think replacing him in a tsunami of selfish fear will lift your polling, you are not only utterly wrong strategically, you are devoid of any actual courage to be in politics.

Replacing Bridges this close to the election won’t save National from 30%, it will guarantee they plunge lower!

Everyone keeps saying ‘Todd Muller’ should be leader, to which i say, ‘who the fuck is Todd Muller’.

Todd Muller is like a fart in an elevator in that you don’t know where it came from, but you really wish it would leave.

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Supporters of a leadership change will point to Labour’s experiment with Jacinda in 2017 to which I would say, ‘sure, but Jacinda was a genuine talent, none of your cavalcade of political circus freaks have anything close to her charisma and the only one how does, Nikki Kaye, wouldn’t be stupid enough to accept this poisoned chalice’.

For 8 weeks a panicked country watched the Prime Minister perform a masterclass in leadership and that panicked country loved her for it. National could have been led by Ronald Regan, John Key and Elvis and they would still be polling 30% because Jacinda is a phenomena.

Kiwi’s legitimately felt like they collectively fell over during this pandemic. Jacinda and Grant have come to them, given them a hug, told them everything is on the credit card until we can get back up on our feet and given us real kindness.

Simon Bridges on the other hand has just clipped you around your ear while you are still on the ground and barked, ‘Get up ya big girls blouse, we’ve got work to do”.

The electorate wanted help, not Captain Arsehole and the reality comedowns.

Jacinda’s leadership has made us proud and safe. Crisis breeds political loyalty and makes people understand the concept of solidarity as a cultural value.

This incredible majority poll result speaks of something else though because it isn’t just Jacinda’s amazing leadership, it is also the utter hollow vacancy of the political values of National.

Other than keeping power, National have no political values. You would think in a  moment like this the values of self reliance, stoicism and individual rights could be articulated in a way that allowed National voters to hold their heads up, instead it’s all sounded bitter and utterly tone deaf.

In the week before lockdown, Bridges and Goldsmith hosted a press conference where they boasted how much Government regulation they were going to burn. A week out from a moment when NZers would be rushing to be protected by the state, Simon is boasting about dismantling it!

National’s political values are so empty that they forget the first role of the State is to protect the people. Changing leader now won’t fix that problem for National, only exacerbate it.

For all his faults, Bridges is no wimp and he will fight it out and while he can’t and won’t beat Labour in September, he can at least show they aren’t a party of desperate cowards.

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13 COMMENTS

    • She’s smart, competent, and still traveling light. They have to have a leader and I would rather her than Luxon any day, year, decade.. Look who’s been polishing him up..

  1. Thanks for the giggle I got reading this Martyn; – I vote for the ‘fart’ here; – not Muller or Nikki Kaye, who is the other MP to topple Simon Bridges..

    “Todd Muller is like a fart in an elevator in that you don’t know where it came from, but you really wish it would leave.”

  2. Looks like Simon won’t be giving it all ip so easily because…
    It’s my party, and I will lead it if I want to

  3. One of your best articles,@Martyn Bradbury.

    So many points to consider bud.

    ——————-

    Supporters of a leadership change will point to Labour’s experiment with Jacinda in 2017 to which I would say, ‘sure, but Jacinda was a genuine talent, none of your cavalcade of political circus freaks have anything close to her charisma and the only one how does, Nikki Kaye, wouldn’t be stupid enough to accept this poisoned chalice’.

    ——————-

    And no , she wouldn’t. It would be a set up to fail.

    ——————-

    For 8 weeks a panicked country watched the Prime Minister perform a masterclass in leadership and that panicked country loved her for it. National could have been led by Ronald Regan, John Key and Elvis and they would still be polling 30% because Jacinda is a phenomena.

    Kiwi’s legitimately felt like they collectively fell over during this pandemic. Jacinda and Grant have come to them, given them a hug, told them everything is on the credit card until we can get back up on our feet and given us real kindness.

    ——————-

    And that is true, as Chris Trotter quoted Marcus Tullius Cicero, – ” The safety of the people is the highest law”.

    And the time worn wisdom has been followed:

    …”Jacinda’s leadership has made us proud and safe. Crisis breeds political loyalty and makes people understand the concept of solidarity as a cultural value”… is in direct alignment with Cicero’s political wisdom ”The safety of the people is the highest law”….

    ———————

    …’Other than keeping power, National have no political values. You would think in a moment like this the values of self reliance, stoicism and individual rights could be articulated in a way that allowed National voters to hold their heads up, instead it’s all sounded bitter and utterly tone deaf’…

    ———————

    Think of Rome , or the Greek states, was anything ever achieved by singular, individual endeavor? NEVER !, – it was always achieved by a body that allowed great leaders to arise that had the popular backing of its peoples and its political system. And those that did endured whereas those who took power by violent force most often suffered calamity and the dissolution of their empires when they themselves died.

    The values of ‘self reliance, stoicism and individual rights’ work well in an environment of an already established political system that exists, – or a frontier experience where theft, commandeering and annexation and the oppression of anyone who had prior claims to that land is ignored and a blind eye is taken by those of the domination culture,…

    But in the case of national and global economic dissolution , the ‘rugged individualist’ theory quickly falls down. This is what we are seeing. The ‘wild west’ variety of neo liberalism cannot prosper in the world wide recession or economic depression. All are affected. It is unrelenting and merciless. There is no pity and it is indiscriminate.

    Therefore , we are left to fall back on ancient wisdom and again remember the words of Cicero , – ” The safety of the people is the highest law”….

    Which translates to govt intervention , of regulation, of moderating the individuals response and to curbing destructive activity’s of the individual for the sake of the many. Something which the neo liberal perceives as prohibiting their personal rights and freedoms. But they forget they are but a mere product of those society’s, – and owe their freedoms directly to that society.

    They all too easily forget , when it comes to their rapaciousness, that we are a society that lives under the rule of LAW, …. not FRONTIER LAWLESSNESS.

  4. Hardly madness… put Luxon in as leader after losing in 2020 and take 2023 with Jong Kee II…

  5. I do not see Simon going anywhere. I could be wrong, but I see this as National vaudeville. To give him airtime, speak his mind and get out there. I do not think any of his colleagues dislike him or even want to challenge him. I will be totally shocked if he is voted down. I really think he is genuinely liked by all of his colleagues and too bad he cannot expand to the public by force of personality.

    • Yes, I’d say take a cue from Judith Collins,…the neutral stance, one of the dominant personality’s,…that reveals all we need to know. There is little point in Judith Collins stepping forwards to roll Bridges if she will only inherit a crumbling kingdom in need of rebuild.

      Some young avengers may attempt to, but older, wiser heads will run a mile from it. And from that we can deduce the internal state of the National party. I have always maintained Bridges is a ‘ placeholder’.

      It is not Bridges that should be a concern , – but the person after him. And not just some selected bozo because National are toast in the polls. The Nats will wait, until they have found their charismatic front person.

      That is the person to be looking for.

  6. But Simon Bridges could easily win the next election.
    All he has to do is initiate a royal commission of inquiry into past and present business relationships between our politicians and those Kiwi-As multimillionaire and billionaire business persons.
    Then, re nationalise those assets which were once ours, criminalise sub prime trading and whack on a 99% capital gains tax.
    Then Simon could set up a task force to investigate and report on dubious farmer abuse stemming from a manipulative and bias media and encourage rural/urban inclusion relationships so as to meld farming with urban.
    Simon? Chuck out the banksters too. And return that 6 billion back into AO/NZ/s economy which would aid in you implementing a UBI.
    If Simon did that, labour would be fucked.
    But simon won’t and labour will continue to be the same-same but different while we keep getting fucked on the deal.

    • countryboy, you are always harping on about how the farmers are hard done by. Thats just bullshit. Back in the late 80’s and the 90’s I supplied milk to Moa-Nui as a sharemilker. We produced the best mozzarella in NZ to pizza hut from our Lepperton plant. The Dairy Board screwed us over and awarded that contract to Kiwi. Never mind we started to build a state of the art Cheese factory in Inglewood. So Kiwi screwed us by offering huge deals to our biggest suppliers to switch companies. Next thing I know i am supplying milk to fucking Fonterra. Over the next 20 plus years Fonterra have gone on to screw up the Dairy industry even more. Greedy stupid farmers have bought all these woes down on their own heads

  7. Well here is an observation albeit being casual on my part.
    When we were told especially by such ummmm errrr politicians like Simon Bridges to ‘Stay Home/Save Lives’ I think we all had to know that what Simon Bridges said and what Simon Bridges did may as well have been Polar Opposites.
    Out of all we have seen in regards to Simon Bridges is he has been opportunistic and self-serving. But lets be all assured he will have naturally passed ALL travel costs onto the NZ taxpayers to pay.
    Bridges claimed the reasoning for his traipsing around NZ was due to internet problem but if he cannot get HIS VERY OWN internet to work then what good would he ever be as a leader of New Zealand especially at a difficult time like this???!!!!!!!
    As we draw daily to the next election I guess we can be assured of one thing and that is even National and whomever their leader(s)are at the time will be blaming the current Coalition government for the COVID-19 event.
    At no time will National who are quite obviously under the control of an overseas country with a very big bank account or 8 accounts will blame those who have the money to donate to National.
    Nope. It will be easier for National to blame ordinary NZers than big businesses because the little old NZ workers are easier to blame than those who fund the NZ National Party.

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