Mike's Minute: What does National hope to achieve?
Say it's Erica Stanford as leader, does she swing your vote?
What about Bishop? Do things materially change because he is suddenly the leader?
This is the madness of what National are up to.
There's the panickers in the back, some of whom might lose their jobs, because when they arrived as the tide pulled in in 2023, they didn't work out some of them have to lose three years later, because that’s what tides do. They turn.
National of course have form in Bill English and Judith Collins. We all remember the calamity that seems to grip the party when they put self-interest first.
But this time things are different. Polls have them returning for another term.
And even if you're angsty about that, replacing Luxon does not change a thing. Direction doesn’t change, policy doesn't change and the coalition doesn’t change.
Do the optics change? Maybe.
Is that what the majority of people vote on? The optics?
This election is about whether the country is going in the right direction, or not. Your mind will not be changed based on Stanford, Bishop, or Luxon. The work they have done to get us here has already got your vote, or it hasn’t.
As for Chris Penk and his dirty work in this whole exercise – what a doofus. How did he get sucked into this?
Being disloyal is one of human nature's lowest traits and National seem to be comfortable with it.
Even if you argue Luxon never quite fired, and a lot do, he is not individually holding National back from winning an election.
Given all the polling this should not be happening. That’s how mental it all is.
If they were on 22% and losing, if it was Andrew Little and Labour, if it was English in 2002, then maybe. But it isn't.
The Opposition is barely alive, one of their three parties is imploding, and the Poll of Polls has little, if any, path to Government.
So the good old Nats decide to put their best self-interest foot forward and shoot themselves in it.
As one senior Nat put it to me yesterday; "you can't write this stuff".
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