Forces aligned against Bridges within National might move against him over holidays
There are now genuine concerns within the National Party that Simon Bridges can’t be Leader.
His bizarre and inept self-mutilation over this leak of his expenses has turned a small clique who wished to undermine him into a fully fledged avalanche of concern as other National MPs watch on in disbelief as he turned a molehill into a mountain.
Simon should have shrugged off the leak, but by demanding an inquiry and insisting it didn’t come from inside National, he set himself up for answers he didn’t know. This bizarre mental health twist left him high and dry and Mallard’s decision to pull the rug out from under him has left him weak and impotent.
The way Bridges has handled this has called into question his suitability as Leader. and there are now serious whispers of a need to replace him.
This startling revelation by Politik adds fuel to the growing concern at his lack of foresight…
National turns on the Speaker
POLITIK has learned that Bridges told several people that he interviewed Mallard and could tell from his experience as a crown prosecutor, by Mallard’s body language, that he was guilty.Tweets began to appear from National insiders suggesting Mallard was the leaker.
…by now the rumour mill as to which 3rd party leaked this (it’s not a National MP) has done the rounds and most Political Journalists will know who that person is now so the ongoing attempt to make this Mallard’s problem is desperate at best, utterly misdirected at worst.
The leaker has goaded Bridges into making absurd decisions and has given him enough rope to hang himself in front of the entire National Party Caucus.
A couple more leaks and the dam will burst and a move against Bridges will be put in place for the Summer holidays.
National just needs a simple 51% majority of Caucus for a spill. How many look trust worthy in this picture?
gone after Xmas hols
One. Non-tall gentleman in the middle of the fifth row – possibly another in the back row. They progressively worsen towards the front.
The dam will burst if a couple more leaks reveal that it was indeed Mallard or some other government member that leaked. The sudden reversal of a decision to investigate has an unsettling quality about it under the circumstances. It will need to be explained better than it has been so far to sheet home the damage to Bridges and the nats.The mental instability cry looks a bit desperate. ” don’t try to find me I might blow up”.
Stopping the inquiry because it is an internal nat matter might easily be interpreted as ” stop the enquiry, It might not be an internal nat matter”.
I wonder if we ever find out? Though in the first instance it probably would have been wise for him to have apologised for the expense and announced another way of doing things in the future and ignored the source of the leak, now he should probably not let it rest till he has the answer.
D J S
Will they wait that long?
It was always obvious Bridges was an interim leader. One only has to watch that infamous interview of him by John Campbell to see he wasn’t leader material.
He never was supposed to be there long term.
Watch for the next person. That is the one they really will invest in. Even if they need to parachute one in. But Bridges is certainly not and never was intended to be the leader.
Yep.
And whoever they are is a nasty piece of work.