No mistake, Rodney Hide is now politically toxic. The board, the caucus might have known some of Garrett's background. But it was Rodney's call. Garrett was his man:
Hide's one chance at pulling the nose up came last Friday, and he choked it. He conceded as much on The Nation the next day, saying that he led the party at the pleasure of the board and would stand aside if the party said so. So, who's next to captain this bipolar fixed wing aircraft?
The Deborah Coddington/ Paul Holmes nudge nudge wink wink game on Q&A was enlightening. Heather Roy should come out of this smelling of roses, the wronged co-pilot.
If Act were willing to follow Roy's ploy and aim for more than 5 percent of next year's vote, she would be a better leader to accomplish this. She would certainly stop scaring off the girl power bloc. However, a five percent target was optimistic at the time of her Black Swan dive at the conference. Right now, Act would be lucky to scrape one percent of the vote, not enough lift to avoid the mountain.
Richard Long has outlined the John Boscawen option. This would involve Boscawen sitting in the cockpit and taking over Epsom from Hide at next year's election. Unlike David Shearer in Mt Albert and Kris Faafoi in Mana, Boscawen knows the lie of the land in Epsom. For the comfortable people of Epsom, an accountant is close to sainthood. It would help remove the fishy smell left by his predecessor. Boscawen could fly through the mountain in the Epsom wormhole. It might just work.
