Judith can feel justifiably pleased. In her first week as Leader of the Opposition, she managed to claim the scalp of a Minister. In fact, if you think about it, she has claimed much more. She has forced Ardern into trying to look strong and in the process maybe opened a can of worms. If it weren’t for Judith and the position she holds, I bet Ian Lees-Galloway would still be a Minister.
How Judith played this in terms of what she knew and when is a moot point. Was the question she was asked, if she had other information on other politicians on the AM show, purely a coincidence or did she let on prior to going to air? The fact it was Lees-Galloway is hardly something new. Rumours have been circulating about him for years. How Ardern seemed unaware is another moot point. Perhaps a shorter haircut would help her ears better to receive relevant gossip and scandal.
No matter how Judith played it, Ardern would have been caught on the hop. Her little brain would have been racing faster than an F1 car in a race at Le Mans. As Heather du Plessis-Allan says, Ardern got snookered by a Judith Collins power play. That, in a nutshell, is it. She was hit with something she didn’t see coming. Ardern was backed into a corner. Her options put her between a rock and a hard place.
Did she try and hang on to the Minister and have Judith expose all her weaknesses over again or did she try and look strong as Judith had with Falloon. The latter was her only option. If it was just the affair she fired him for, and there is some debate about that, then she has opened a veritable can of worms. There must be other MP’s sitting rather uncomfortably in their green leather upholstered parliamentary seats.
Ardern took two days to pass her information to Judith. Judith passed her information on almost immediately. This is Mummy giving the dummy a lesson in leadership. The left can spin this any way they like but the cold hard fact is that with just a week in the job, Judith has given Ardern a taste of what is to come. Ardern needs to realise she is up against someone who is far smarter than she is.
Ardern needs to forget her bravado remark on Judith’s appointment that she had more important things to think about such as COVID-19. That arrogance has already spelt trouble for her. She needs to sit up and take notice. There will be plenty more of this to come. To those on the left it will be dirty politics because their cover girl has been done like a dinner. To those of us here and all political strategists it will be clever politics.
It’s game on and Round One to Judith.
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