Poor Simon!
An obscure National Party list MP has accidentally confirmed that there are now rumours regarding a leadership spill.
Brett Hudson is the MP in question. No, I’d never heard of him either.
Hudson has put it out there that there are people suggesting that Simon Bridges is about to be rolled.
“There is a group of people tweeting nonsense about supposed leadership rumblings in National. Those people are readily identifiable in our communities…”
Presumably, the clowns in question are from the right. Nobody on the left wants Bridges removed. He’s electoral gold for the Government parties.
Bridges’ response to the Government’s Covid-19 rescue package is everything you could of hoped for from someone you want to see lose. Angry, petulant and pathetically petty, Bridges’ beneficiary bashing was easily his worst performance in the house and that’s really saying something.
Brett Hudson has unintentionally bought the Tory’s lack of leadership to the surface and I reckon his denial of a coming spill will actually turn up the volume about the possibility. At the very least, any talk at all of a challenge further weakens Bridges. Better to have said nothing, Brett.
And maybe saying nothing is the answer for the Nats’ leader. If Bridges self isolated for the next five months there’s a chance that voters might forget how average he is by September. It’s certainly an option worth considering.
But, really, the Nats in are in deep shit. They have two choices; let Bridges lead them to a solid loss in September or dump him and condemn the new leader to, er, leading them to a solid loss in September.
Either way, they will still be the largest party in Parliament. Just nowhere near a majority.
Frankly, they may as well stick with Simon. Sure, he’s buffoonish, bumbling and tone deaf. Tinnitus in a tacky suit.
However, the alternative is to curse his replacement with a first up loss as leader.
Helen Clark survived losing her first election, and then went on to win three in a row, but then, she was Helen Clark. I don’t see anyone with her qualities in the Nat caucus.
So, yeah, Brett Hudson has unintentionally embarrassed Simon Bridges and bought the issue of his leader’s undeniable unsuitability to lead the country to the fore.
It’s obvious now that whether or not the National wash their hands of Bridges, they’re dog tucker this election. And that’s probably the best news we’ve had in recent weeks.
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