Here comes Judith!

Of all the antics which came out of parliament last week it seems that the winner on the Opposition side of things is Judith “I stab from the front” Collins.

It was not retarded antics of Paula Bennet, Gerry Brownlee, Trevor Mallard, Phil Twyford or Clarke Gayford which seems to have made hay but loveable and cuddly Judith.

The latest polling from Reid Research has the MP for Papakura appearing in the polls at 3.7% for preferred leader.

Collins appears to have made sweet filthy lucre off her time in the house while the rest ended up looking like a bunch of spoiled kids squabbling over the toys.

Not that Judith is the most adult of the MPs in parliament but at least she had the decency to avoid the histrionics of Bennet and stay on target while the many others in National found themselves reverting to their default setting of rumour-mongering, cat calls and the slimy shift from “holding the government to account” to Dirty politics Part II as they continue struggling to adjust to life in opposition and cant seem to land a decent blow on a government which is slowly starting to come down off its silver lined cloud and deal with the reality of actually fixing whats wrong in NZ.

“So what”, I hear you say “Jacinda reigns supreme as our beloved Warrior Queen at 40% so who cares?”

I know one person who will be caring about those poll results: Simon Bridges.

Bridges remains at 9% and has struggled to get traction as Opposition leader since he took over what is commonly known as the most difficult job in politics. This is not entirely his fault given the antics of his minions BUT his bold face and claims to be playing fair have not done much damage to the Government so it’s not hard to assume that the National Brain Trust (specially the more conservative elements*) will be looking round and counting the days on Bridges expiry date.

In some ways it’s a shame really because Bridges (and his play fair approach) remains the best bet to hold the Coalition government to account as it begins to falter on the big issues and in the wake of its lackluster budget. 

Collins has picked up some polling on Bridges weak leadership and because Labour is beginning to appear to have won the war but lost the peace as it looks like it does not really have the political will to do what needs to be done and instead will do just enough to keep the dissent from boiling up in the populace (which is typical Labour).

Still this could be the beginning of National playing the game that Labour previously played – that being the Leadership Shuffle.

Collins of Course remains poker faced about this and stating in the media she is "very happy doing what I'm doing and I'm very supportive of our leader Simon Bridges" but Bridges would do well to get some of the same type of stab-proof clothing that Bill English started wearing when he took over from John Key.

At least with Judith, Simon will see her coming.

*-Ah who am I kidding, that's all of them.