Andrew Dickens Afternoons

What a walloping, and now the recriminations begin for one side and the plans for the successful government start to fall into place. Starting with National, this is a disaster and their only hope is to realise how and why they got it so wrong over the past three years. It is all their own fault and they should not shift the blame. It started in 2017 when they failed to secure a coalition partner gifting government to Labour. National supporters blame Winston.  But there was little chance after the way the party treated Mr Peters for an extended period of time.  John Key knew this.  As soon as the Māori Party started to crumble as their kaumatua retired, Mr Key knew he had no friends left so flew the coop. A smart party would have built a bridge to Winston. But they didn’t. After the shock loss the dithering began.  They lost Stephen Joyce and with him a number of other talents. The election of Bridges and Bennett split the party and no Bridges-bridges were built.  Simon believed that the party needed to be a