Mark Mitchell, tattoo aficionado and “loyal to Paula”, reckons National’s salvation is the Maori party.
National may have closed the door on New Zealand First, but is leaving it ajar for the Maori Party.
National MP Mark Mitchell told Mike Hosking he is predicting a resurgence in the Maori Party and says National could team up with them again.
Mitchell also believes the Act Party is a strong partner to National.
“I’m at Waitangi and there’s a lot of dissatisfaction among Maori about what Labour has failed to deliver.”
It seems Mitchell is simply echoing his leader’s mantra at Waitangi, that Labour isn’t delivering for Maori. That makes it official that National is saying they will deliver for Maori, showing yet again a massive disconnect between members and the fools at the top of the party.
Simon Bridges went to Waitangi to fling poo and insult Maori, hoping to get a reaction, such is his desperation for relevancy. Maori cunningly ignored Simon Bridges, treating him as irrelevant, leaving him to scuttle off with his tail between his legs.
In doing so he left his MPs behind to talk behind his back about his captain’s call to ditch Winston. They’ve spent the last two days whining to anyone who will listen that contrary to his claims there was no agreement in caucus, nor any consensus.
Mark Mitchell‘s claims are without merit. He knows that his party’s internal polling is showing that National plus Act has less than Labour plus Greens. He is willingly suspending belief to follow a dog; then again that has been the story of his career to date. He was a dog handler in the Police, is loyal to Paula Bennett, and does and says whatever Simon Bridges says he should do.
This is simply wishful thinking by Mitchell and National, the phone will be ringing and it will be Darryl Kerrigan to tell them they’re dreamin’.
National, Simon Bridges and Mark Mitchell seem to have not noticed that the electorate has reached peak Maori. The electorate knows National is led by two Maori and it hasn’t made a blind bit of difference. Sucking up to Maori is not how National gains power. One former MP famously kept a spreadsheet that recorded all the Waitangi settlements and initiatives National had delivered for Maori versus votes from Maori. They were in an inverse proportion. The more National gave to Maori the less they voted for National. He had even worked out how much money National had to spend on Maori to get zero votes from them.
It is a waste of time for National to pander to Maori. There is simply no electoral profit in it for them. Another failure from Simon Bridges and his so-called leadership team.