Last night’s Reid Research Newshub poll result will be reverberating through National’s caucus. And raises the question, do they gift Epsom to ACT and maybe get a right wing MP or do they preserve every seat they can for themselves.
National has decided to play politics with Covid 19 and is opposing the Government’s attempt to pass legislation to secure level 2 arrangements. And has made the extraordinary claim that Jacinda Ardern is just like Rob Muldoon but with slogans.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield has responded to allegations by Simon Bridges that the government has suspended the Official Information Act and the Emergency Response Committee has made multiple requests for information from the Ministry that it is waiting for by advising publicly there are no outstanding requests for information.
In a Facebook Live event David Parker has schooled Simon Bridges on basic principles of constitutional law. And it appears that Bridges demand that legally privileged advice be handed over is heading to the Privileges Committee.
Simon Bridges threw two stunts yesterday, firstly threatening to try and summons senior Public Servants to publicise confidential legal advice and then by attacking Dr Ashley Blomfield for not answering emails quickly enough despite the existence of a pandemic which the country appears to be handling pretty well.
Former Prime Minister John Key has said that under current conditions employers are going to sack 20 per cent of their workers even if the company is doing well and that employers should never waste a crisis.
Tova O’Brien has reported multiple leaks of a Nick Smith email which was highly critical of Simon Bridges.
National economics spokesperson Paul Goldsmith has advanced a plan to address the Covid 19 pandemic which includes union bashing and privatisation.
Guest post from former Labour Staffer Clint Smith on the similarities between National’s current predicament and what happened to Labour in 2011 and 2014.
Will Simon survive? Or will Paula and Mark team up against him? Or will Judith somehow manage to persuade the caucus that she is the only chance they have of retaining their seats?
Stay tuned …
If the current dip in National’s polling continues then a number of their electorate MPs face the loss of their seats and an increasing battle for a shrinking number of list seat positions.
Simon Bridges’s Facebook post criticising the extension of lockdown level 4 has been met with overwhelming opposition, including from people who are clearly National Party supporters.
National MP Simon O’Connor thinks that making under used streets safer for walkers and cyclers is a Socialist inspired plan for world domination.
National is trying to steal show political leadership and relevance by launching a petition.
Addendum added
Hot on the news that National’s polling has plunged to 35% Paula Bennett has publicly suggested that the election should be delayed. I wonder if they are related?
When Opposition Spokespersons behave like concern trolls, we have a problem.
Simon Bridges has been criticised for his relentless negativity towards the Government’s urgent Covid-19 budget response and for playing politics as usual at a time when unity is required.
National has promised a bonfire of regulations. Just like conservatives in Australia, the United Kingdom, America and previous National administrations.
National and NZ First are frustrating the passage of the Arms Legislation Bill by raising issues that may appeal to extremists but will not make the country a safer place after the Christchurch massacre.
Simon Bridges thinks that getting people to wash their hands and removing unemployment stand down periods is tinkering but that National’s still unreleased economic policy will solve the crisis.
Simon Bridges thinks that tax cuts are the best way to address financial stress caused by businesses by the Covid 19 epidemic. Even though businesses under financial stress will be paying little if any tax and a tax cut would have little if any effect.
The Australian Liberal Government has signalled a movement away from solar and wind power to untested technologies including carbon capture, hydrogen and lithium. Meanwhile the woman who led the negotiations for the Paris Agreement is calling for civil disobedience to force institutions to respond to the climate crisis.
National has announced a “new” policy that it previously announced in 2014. And that has already been implemented.
Over the past week National has shown a willingness to take really base aggressive positions on law and order issues for political advantages no matter what principles are at stake. And at the same time show a complete lack of understanding of the issues that are involved.
NACT’s values are showing.
National has absolutely nothing to worry about the prosecution of four people for carving up a donation to the National Party.
Name suppression has been lifted for the four National Party associates charged by the SFO.
National’s recent donations returns suggest that a large total of their donations are made in the under $15,000 category, the benefit of which is that the donor’s identity does not have to be disclosed. Update: The four accused have been named.
BREAKING NEWS: Simon Bridges calls on the leader of the opposition to stand down while the SFO case is before the courts.
The SFO charges laid in the District Court reveal that it investigated not one but two dodgy $100,000 donations to National.
Simon Bridges has claimed that the average wage earner in the country pays almost 33c in the dollar in taxes. Spoiler alert, they do not.
National will announce today that tax cuts will be a major policy plank for the next election.
It has been revealed that NZ First acquired photographs of its former President and two reporters emerged on the Whaleoil mark 2 site, raising the concerning possibility that Simon Lusk may be involved in helping NZ First.
Simon Bridges has claimed that a GDP growth Jacinda Ardern used was wrong even though it was the figure released by Statistics NZ.
In the past 10 days Simon Bridges has said that National will not go into coalition with NZ First after the next election, to it could consider coalition in the future, to there is no way it will ever go into coalition with NZ First.
Three more National MPs have joined the ranks of those leaving Parliament this year.
