It’s the final countdown

[…] A score like this week’s Colmar Brunton showing of 40 percent triggers the warning light. He is entering the danger zone.

Simon Bridges is history. It is no longer a matter of ‘if’; it is now a matter of ‘when’. All that remains to be seen is whether or not it is a clean handover with Bridges standing down for the good of the party, or whether it will be a bloody coup.

If this were a good faith performance review in the normal run of employment law practice then it would be difficult to remove Bridges.
If you benchmarked him against others it would be hard to argue he has underperformed.

[…]Bridges has Jami-Lee Ross and the ripple effects of his rebellion. He has backroom staff, that no one outside central Wellington has heard of, complaining about his leadership.
Worst of all is National’s review of culture, which Bridges called for in the wake of complaints from women in the party about Ross’ behaviour.

On Morning Report this week, Bridges wouldn’t say who did the review and couldn’t say whether any female MPs participated. He refused to reveal anything of its contents until Parliament’s own review is released and then revealed he hadn’t read it himself.

Again, it’s small stuff in the grand scheme of things. But that is the point. While Ardern plays on the international stage dealing with matters of life, death and national security, Bridges is braying in the wilderness of party political irrelevancy.

[…] I have a liking for cricket analogies and I’ll end with one. Judith Collins is the next batter up. She has the pads on. She is a big hitter. She could crush, crash or burn. National needs to decide if it’s going to keep going with the night watchman or send in The Crusher.

RadioNZ

A civilised handover is what will be best for both the party and for the new leader. If Bridges cares about the National party then he should stand aside without a fuss, just as Andrew Little did for Jacinda Ardern.

A bloody coup, however, will be much more entertaining and it is much more likely ? given that there is more than one National party politician who wants the job. The ‘phones are running hot at the moment as support is being sought for certain candidates.