National truly is the party that keeps on giving. Every day there is a new scandal, a new event that casts doubt on National’s ability to organise a piss up in a brewery, let alone run a country.
Yesterday it was the the chance for Roger Bridge, who apparently also goes by the description of Merv from Manurewa, to shine. From Tova O’Brien at Newshub:
Newshub can reveal allegations that a senior National Party figure attempted to derail one of the Auckland Central candidates’ nominations with a peculiar midnight phone call to talkback radio pretending to be someone he’s not.
Roger Bridge is a big deal in the National Party. A Queen’s honour recipient, he’s on the party’s board as its Canterbury representative. But Newshub has been told he has a secret alter ego, sometimes going by ‘Merv’.
‘Merv’ called into Marcus Lush’s talkback show last Monday just before midnight.
Although Bridge denies it was him, several National Party sources, including MPs, have listened to the audio and told Newshub ‘Merv’ and Roger Bridge are one in the same.
“Look I’m in Manurewa and I’m a bit confused because there’s billboards all over the place with this Nuwi girl,” ‘Merv’ told the talkback radio show.
‘Merv’ was confused that Nuwanthie ‘Nuwi’ Samarakone was National’s Manurewa candidate but was also pitching to stand in Auckland Central to replace Nikki Kaye who resigned from politics last month.
“She’s already standing in Manurewa and I was ready to vote for her but now I understand she’s going over to Auckland Central – I’m that confused.”
He was seeding doubt about her candidacy and casually dropped in a line about a photograph.
“I’m that confused and then I have this photograph come through today.”
Bridge denied it was him but the Herald has reported that Merv from Manurewa rang from Bridge’s phone. Maybe he was at a party and someone else used his phone as a prank.
The video in Tova’s story is very funny, nearly as good as that of Todd Muller’s early days as leader and the emergence of Paora Goldsmith.
Twitter last night burned with the light of a thousand suns. Merv trended big time at the very time that National wanted clear space for its newly selected Auckland Central candidate Emma Mellows to get some positive news exposure.
Labour’s Manurewa candidate Arena Williams reached out to Merv and invited him to get involved in her campaign.
Questions were asked about National, whose leader says there is nothing wrong with her being white, whose last leader was the proud owner of a MAGA hat, whose front bench is remarkably white still, whose Palmerston North candidate has some pretty racist stuff released on social media, who had one MP retire after saying some really untrue racist stuff about returning kiwis, whose list has seen the demotion of its strongest performing Pacifica MP and whose sole Sri Lankan candidate just got shafted, and its commitment to multiculturalism.
And Judith Collins denied that she was the leader of the National Party, even though National’s own website says she is.
This incident, although at one level trivial, neatly summarises National’s problems. An apparent ham fisted attempt to skewer a selection away from a woman of colour by a very senior Party official, multiple leaks from within National, gee they must hate each other, and a level of disorganisation that makes the phrase “cluster fuck” appear to be too tame.
Please keep it up National. You really are convincing the country that you are not fit to govern.
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