The National Party have finally come to the conclusion that most of its would-be voters came to at the same time Bill English resigned. The clear choice for leader was Judith Collins. That this wasn’t obvious to the caucus, or that they chose to ignore it, is to their eternal shame. The “wets” in the party — and there are too many of them — wanted to carry on a path that was going to lead them to oblivion at the ballot box. It was going to be 2002 all over again.
If there’s one thing Covid has done politically, with Ardern in charge, it has highlighted the basic divide between the ideologies of the Left and the Right. When that happens opinions tend to harden one way or the other. Is it the Marxist doctrine of big government, endless taxes and control, leading to economic ruin, or is it the attitude of get up and go and providing the means whereby people can make a success of their lives?
That the National caucus finally woke up and recognised the inevitable truth that Judith is the best option is hardly to their credit. It’s almost like a desperate times call for desperate measure scenario so they elected the devil they knew. This is now a better late than never calamity and they have presented Judith with the unenviable task of getting them out of the hole they stupidly dug for themselves in only a matter of weeks.
Judith is the only one amongst the whole lot of them capable of achieving this. She displayed this fronting the media after emerging from the caucus room. Totally self assured bringing seriousness laced with some humour. She vowed to take the fight to Ardern and promised to not take any nonsense from her on economic matters. Arden can be excused if she is now having nightmares. She is going to feel the blowtorch that has turned Twyford into an even bigger idiot than he already was.
The choice of Gerry Brownlee as deputy is a master stroke for several reasons. There is no threat of a leadership challenge. He, like Judith, has years of experience. Most importantly, and I believe this will be his main task, is to unite the caucus and keep them united. I believe there is huge respect for Gerry in the caucus. I think now the decision has been made and, with the election around the corner, this may prove not to be too difficult a task.
The election is NOW ALL ON!! This, in my view, is no longer a cakewalk for Ardern. Judith has been Minister of Revenue and is a tax law expert. She will tie Ardern up in knots on these issues and will show her up as nothing more than a cover girl for next week’s magazine. What we will see is an IQ difference about the length of the Southern Motorway. Judith is old enough to be Ardern’s mummy and I’m predicting the little girl will get quite a few telling-offs!
Mallard may be losing sleep as well because witless protection will have to go into overdrive for the last couple of weeks of this session of Parliament. This is the tragedy. National have wasted weeks, if not months, to install a possible election winning team. If they don’t win the election they can blame themselves and not Judith.
I wish Judith all the best and she needs our full support to pull off a famous victory on September 19.
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