When Hooton is going public that means the National Party Leadership Coup is in full effect
Hoots has gone public in the NBR with his musings on the National Party Leadership Coup…
…this is kinda hilarious for a whole bunch of reasons.
Hooton is pretending to be some kind of passive observer to all of this when the reality is he is up to his armpits.
His candidate/mate/Manchurian candidate is Simon Bridges. Bridges is being lined up as the Deputy to Judith Collins Leadership.
Collins/Bridges have the numbers, all that is being debated is how to kill off Bennett and Joyce whom are hated.
Pundits pointing to the great Polling National have (going higher than they polled on election day in both polls) as reasons why Bill will survive utterly misread the vibe inside National.
Inside National, people are furious they were cheated out of winning, those climbing Poll numbers are simply aggravating that anger, not appeasing it.
Collins/Bridges would bring together the most angry and powerful factions of the National Party including the elevation of Hooton and Slater into Princelings of the dark arts.
This collaboration alone has the ability to generate a level of dirty politics that goes beyond anything this country has ever seen.
Remember the claim that Slater and Jordan Williams were attempting to take out Colin Craig so they could take over the Conservative Party? That’s because there is still a solid 3% vote out there that is Conservative vote and if an electorate MP from National were to suddenly step aside to become the new Leader of the Conservative Party and get run unchallenged in their former electorate and bring in 3% off the coat tail function of MMP, National + Conservatives + ACT could easily be the Government in 2020.
National hierarchy are terrified of Collins being leader because she is completely uncontrollable and they are frightened of what she would do with the power. The clock however is ticking on Bill’s leadership and the longer he stays the more likely leaks he doesn’t want coming out start coming out on Whaleoil.
The dice are loaded and the hard Right within National is rising. With economic meltdowns looming, the stage is set for the Crusher to crush.
nah. collins and bridges have done their dash. Once the coalistion isup to speed they are going to get smashed. as for hooton well he is from a fine old english family but he hasn’t any money to go with it so he is desperate.
DREAMER
Bennett will bolt in, appeals to a cross section of the community ?
I just don’t see it. Collins (especially) and Bridges are nigh on unelectable imo. If you think these two are slimy/Machiavellian now, wait until they have to debate Jacinda. There is no way they manage to hide what they are (unlike Key), and there just aren’t that many NZers (e.g. Hosking) who would vote for her. I vividly remember Paul Henry (on that 10:30 PM show he fronted on 3) saying Collins was “totally unelectable” and even he couldn’t entertain the notion of voting for her.
I would agree, the high polling that National still enjoys will only encourage Bridges and Collins to go for it. They will think that they have strong enough support that does not erode, even under English and Bennett, who appear somewhat dated and worn out now.
And of course, Hooton is behind this, with a few others, he did openly admit on Nine to Noon and the Political Commentators, very recently, that English cannot lead the Nats into the 2020 election. That is his view, and he has been disappointed of English, now wants a change of leadership.
The ones supporting Bridges and Collins believe that attack and aggressive political activism from within the National Party caucus and party as a whole is what will get them back into government.
And the idea is not wrong, that backing a smallish conservative or right wing activist party may help them get in easily next election.
The question is how will all this play out in the end, and will voters be positively impressed. Given the over forty percent for National, it seems that enough voters are still backing them, out of own vested interests and anger at certain progressive policy and ideas coming from the new government.
Labour’s problem is the apathy among more liberal minded, or simply indifferent or disconnected people out there, some poor, having given up all hope for a change for the better anyway. And individualism and consumerism has made many voters very cynical, they consider all this a game of buying and selling, of commodity monopoly or whatever else, nothing genuine and sincere.
I am myself getting more cynical by the day about the political realities in NZ Aotearoa.
We are stuck between parties offering mediocre solutions of the same kind we have had for years, or no solutions at all. The market forces do also choke off any chances for real change, any party going against neoliberal market economic thinking instantly gets written off and punished.
Rob Muldoon got elected as the leader of the Nats as a gapfiller. The Nats didn’t really like him or his brutal style, but figured Labour were unbeatable under Norman Kirk. And look what happened… Collins is looking more and more like Muldoon every day.
In 1978+81 the majority of NZers voted for Labour and Social Credit. If MMP had been in Muldoon would have been a one term PM. With Rowling as PM this neoliberal madness might not have happened. This is one of the key reasons my generation fought for MMP. I dont think Collins or Bridges has a shit show when Brash couldnt do it.
National has virtually the entire right wing vote in the country – with about 2% still in New Zealand First. National’s big number disguises the fact that a minority of the country don’t want what the right has to offer and if they create another conservative party it will only canabalise the existing vote.
They might be hoping that killing off NZ First will help their situation but right now most of their voters have decamped to Labour and an election held now would see a Labour/Green victory – the ultimate right wing nightmare.
Equally important a lot of right wing people are quite comfortable with Jacinda as PM and just imagine how Collins would look up against the Mother of the Nation and her new-born baby!
“most of [NZ First’s] voters have decamped to Labour”
So they should, or rather they should be decamping to the Greens, who are actually serious about the policies NZ First claim to champion but fail to actually do so when the rubber meets the road. Nationalist lefties voted NZ First because they mistook Peters for an Anderton, when it turns out he’s more of a Dunne, and couldn’t even achieve the only admirable thing Trump has done – getting his country out of the TPP.
” Collins (especially) and Bridges are nigh on unelectable”.. In a world where most Kiwis had a real interest in how well their own society works, yes… but this is not that country any more..
The number of times i’ve seen people who should never been allowed within 100 km of the levers of power gleefully installed, and then celebrated as “great leader, or most popular PM ever”, backed by the large proportion of NZers that only want to know how much profit their portfolios are making.. Has gone past simply being a “blip” on the radar, and now has become standard M O within the ranks of the self appointed “elites”… There are enough of the electorate either ignorant, or naive enough to swallow the drivel forced down their throats by the NZ herald et al, for a continuation of the stripping of NZ’s assets, once the current government has been saddled with the blame for John Keys theft, and disloyalty to his own people….
Sad but so true.
The Press wrote out Little and wrote in Ardern. Clever but sly little articles. Same tactics mirrored on T.V.
Why don’t we just part the curtain and ask the Press Barons who’s next up for the Nats. Would save time and spare us from any nastiness.
I suspect all the possible candidates will be seat warmers until invisible hands behind National Party will find someone suitable who is possibly not even in Parliament yet – Ritchie McCaw, for example, or someone else with strong emotional appeal?