BREAKING NEWS:
My understanding is that the nature of the information Boag sent had digital fingerprints that would make the track and trace of it very easy.
Muller clearly has said things in the last few weeks that once the inquiry is finalised might demand some urgent answers from him.
Who now leads the Party is an open question, this might be the exact moment Judith Collins has been waiting for.
The reek of dirty politics and the betrayals inside the different factions of National are all at play here. Since Muller took over there was a destabilisation campaign run and he has paid the price for his reckless ambition.
Muller had all the false confidence of a tall man. His coup was inspired by spooked backbench MPs frightened they would become unemployed and that cowardice mixed with his unconstrained self appreciation of his skill set.
It has predictably imploded.
There is so much more to come.
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Matthew Hooton works his gold.
And Jacinda keeps her decorum.
But I haven’t even opened my popcorn yet!
Does this mean Paula will come back and Amy Adam’s retire again.
They are just hapless.
Bert,
On point. Hilarious. Muller talks Adams out of retirement to be a big player in his outstanding team….then along with a rapidly growing list, resigns from said outstanding team.
I would pay to watch this. Great entertainment and couldn’t happen to a more deserving…. outstanding team.
Very sad of course 🙂
Yes very sad Jacindafan…
“Happy days”
Bring back Soiman !
It’s all a poison chalice. Dont drinnk from it. everyone stay humble okay?
Bloody well said Sam I agree entirely.
I say National should discuss with Winston who would he want to lead National that he could work with. That is the most intelligent thing to do now. Use Winston’s long time knowledge in politics who National should have.
He would say “i’ll do it”
D J S
My immediate thought was that Muller had figured out his “plausible deniability” was blown to bits over the Woodhouse and ‘Whites only’ Walker timing, and that the Heron inquiry would soon enough come knocking.
Plus, not everyone has the constitution to lie on camera and lead party as dirty and filthy as NZ National has been since its inception. He did not win the job by landslide either so no doubt was undermined by factions. He is probably stressed out and not suited for the role at all. You have to be a real nasty bastard like Key to do it successfully!
‘You have to be a real nasty bastard like Key to do it successfully!’
Yes, a true sociopath, quite happy to shaft anyone and everyone whilst stuffing his bank account with ill-gotten goodies. And make jokes about it
But even Key knew when to run with the booty -perhaps having seen the writing on the wall for the loot-and-pollute and transfer-wealth-upwards policies he so blatantly promoted via egregious lies and dirty politics.
How many rats leaving a sinking ship does it take before the ‘ship’ has no credibility?
Who is has thick enough skin to stand the ridicule associated with having a National Party billboard on their property?
And the other thing is this: with the world in its present state, who is going to want to contribute fast-disappearing money to fund a campaign to get a bunch of spineless fuckwits who couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery into office?
Around the caucus table:
‘You do it.’
No you.
Hell no.
I don’t want to.
Me either.
Nor me.
And the eyes slowly turn to Judith …. “Weeeeeeellllll …….. I don’t know. …… ummmmmm …… oh okay, I’ll do it.”
eyes slowly turn to Judith
I wonder if Maleficent had a hand in the resignation.
A few days ago a statement came out in the papers from her, to effect that if she was “given nothing to do” she would defect and go to work with Helen Clark.
My favourite comedy….what word shall I use to describe it Todd and then repeat that word 2894 times a day?
SHAMBLES…or SHAMBOLIC…..you choose.
Anyone who believes Muller resigned because he couldn’t handle being National Party leader has 100% missed the mark.
Muller has been caught out in just a few of his bare faced lies. It’s become just too difficult for him trying to explain those lies and with the real fear that there are dozens more lies just waiting to catch him out on. That’s what has become untenable and not good for his health. It must be said, he was the architect of his own downfall.
Bridges must be in stitches laughing. So who replaces Muller.
Only two hopes and both will also be epic fails. Kaye or Collins? I believe Kaye will be leader and Collins her deputy.
Nikki is an air head too. Cannot see her lasting long.
But she dresses like a prom queen…
Todd posted a picture celebrating Matariki on his facebook page yesterday. The pile on from National supporters may have been the straw that broke the camels back. National supporters don’t like Maori stuff apparently.
15 years of Dirty attack style politics has finally collapsed in on them.
Shame on their blind supporters.
But especially shame on their biased journalistic friends, who have run interference for them.
Unwittingly, your consistent turning a blind eye to their corruption has ultimately cemented their fate.
Brand National is a corpse.
Good thing Wage Slave Labour and Arden will NEVER bring in a CGT even though their pending massive victory would enable them to do it… what a relief for the propertied class and a kick in the guts for the subhuman underclass!!! SO progressive!!!!
Given the parameters of parties in front of you Castro, what is your alternative to a Labour coalition government?
Now or never for Judith. My understanding it is health-related however the real reason will come out in due course.
For the record it’s Chris NOT John Luxon and he’ll be there in 18-24 months not before.
Was it you Bomber that said the next national party PM isn’t in the party yet?
Luxon is yet another John Key that will send National supporters away to think of ‘whom else is not too soiled by “big business interests’ – something that was not National party founding ideology.
National was as Rob Muldoon always said “was the party for ‘the average Kiwi Bloke”
“Untenable from a health perspective”. No surprises there. It’s been on the cards for a month now… he had minor surgery … then a cup of tea and a lie down…. then another missed interview for health reasons… a red rash on his face very obvious on TV.
Todd’s doctor has told him if he continues with the job, it could well curtail his life expectancy.
You read it here first!
It all only goes to show how superb, in every respect, is our present PM!!
Oh how the mighty have fallen.
Karma.
National ministers and the era of Key in particular should reflect on the abuse hurled at Labour over the number of leaders Labour had during it”s transition from Clarke. National now will have 4 in 3 years.
It has been like this since the Key regime. The difference was the media was more compliant or downright supportive and didnt go out hunting leads. Secondly, Key just didnt engage and deflected though obfustcation or smear. Finally I think Hubris has claimed the scalps of Bridges and Muller. With the compliant media and the fact their electorate would seemingly continue to support them if they shot somone in the head on live TV, they seemed to feel no need to conceal the dirty tricks. In fact it was almost expected of them. I think the electorate have finally woken up, based on overseas examples of where this brand of politics takes you. The level of incompetence shown is simply at the level you would expect from people of this background in this country. Like I said under Key it was simply hidden better.
Who’s Todd Muller? The Fly by Nighter who rolled Bridges, then had to stop for a Cuppa and a Lie down.
Go National or should that be Gone National?
I suspect he has some mental health issues that have flared up under the pressure of leadership.
I wonder if Woodhouse is cleaning out his office right now – methinks he may be the next one to go. Deleted emails can be retrieved.
The House of wood must be on shakey ground, Boag won’t be going down alone, yep Hooten’s little mits are tarred, no doubt about it.
Saw the said Hooton on Lambton Quay today as my bus was passing. He was greeting someone on the other side (of the road!) with a rather limp wave and a somewhat forced smile (through very gritted teeth). Sad.
Verity, I don’t find it sad, I find it totally appropriate.
Totally agree. It’s irony!
And its started ” but he is such a decent guy ” Anyone who is representing the National party at any time but in particular now is not a decent human being plain and simple !!!
Did he really resign of his own free will?
Or was he pushed?
If so, was it a gun-to-the-head kind of push? (Not literally, but effectively.)
First, I want to reiterate that although I share the schadenfreude, this kind of political theatre is a distraction from the real business of making Aotearoa a better place for all kiwis. Policy, policy, policy!
Having said that, I’m going to indulge myself in a little bit of midwinter armchair punditry along with the rest of you.
Kiwi voters seem to understand that it takes almost a full term just to clear all the landmines left that the retreating Opposition left in the Beehive, while they were in government. They simply do not turf out first term governments. So National never had a chance of winning this election, even before COVID. After the governments’ superb handling of the pandemic crisis, the only play they had left was to stop a predictable loss turning into a morale-crushing landslide. Enter Todd Muller, Nicky Kaye, Hamish Walker, and Michael Woodhouse.
National will be slide into the 2020 election like a crashed Star Destroyer, its Captain and most of its competent crew already lost or killed on impact, carried forward only by its weight and momentum. The extent of their electoral defeat will be a crushing blow. The fault lines of NZ politics have always been far too complex for the simplistic left/right model to express, and I can think of strong arguments for every other party in Parliament – and some outside – to gain votes at their expense. ACT and NZ First are obvious beneficiaries. The handful of real inhabitants in the mostly mythical ‘swing vote’ centre will swing to Labour. But even the Greens could pick up some votes from frustrated cyano-tories, especially with the business-friendly James Shaw as co-leader. Māori who might have voted National could swing back to the Māori Party, but of course socially conservative Māori are the target constituency for the new Public Party as well as any version of the Destiny Party that might try to relaunch in this election.
So what hope does National have beyond this election? My 2 cents is that they should go back to their roots and go after the rural conservationist vote. The kind of people who usually grit their teeth and vote Greens, despite disliking their liberal-socialist economic and social policies. Or grit their teeth and vote NZ First as a protest against National’s persistent denial of the economic realities of country life, and how that negatively impact on rural environmental stewardship. Or who vote for protest parties like the NZ Outdoors Party (formerly the Outdoor Recreation Party). Whoever they decide are their grassroots, they need to complete the cleanout of the old wood, and bring in an entirely new generation of MPs who actually represent those people.
In a nutshell, National has finally lost the ability to ward off the generational crisis that Labour was dealing was as the Opposition under National. How well they handle it will determine when (or if) they lead another NZ government.
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