Former Act MP Deborah Coddington gives her view on the failed Act coup:
The “Politician Wally Award” goes not to Rodney Hide but to the Act MPs who tried to dump him as leader. Hello? Heather Roy, Roger Douglas and John Boscawen – Hide’s the only reason you’re in Parliament, plus the only reason Act still exists, despite his stuff-ups and yes, they’re huge. I’m Hide’s least favourite person but the three coup plotters – who should be sacked except Act has no one credible to take their places – seriously underestimate his intelligence, his extraordinary ability to recover from disaster, and his single-minded determination to achieve his goals (think weight loss, going alcohol-free, winning Epsom).
You have a man down, you lift him up and carry him a while, not press his nose into the mud and think you can take his place. Heather Roy as leader and Roger Douglas as deputy? As they say on Facebook – LMAO.
Fancy having to rely on the swing vote of John Boscawen to survive. Not that I am getting close to feeling sorry for Rodney.
But remember Douglas has the experience of coups against Rowling and Lange. He knows that if at first you don’t succeed then try, try again.
And I’m sure he will.
Maybe Douglas fancies himself as leader, thinking in all his delusion that at least 5% of the country have forgotten the damage he did…
Heeeeelll no.
This makes sense of an earlier claim that John Key threatened a snap election if they sacked Hyde – without him ACT would have no mandate to be there at all. What it does not make sense of is how it is that we learned of these matters very much in the past tense – no politicians being chased down the street by fierce journalist demanding that they account for themselves. Instead we were treated to speculation about a supposed leadership challenge among the Labour ranks.
Creepy isn’t it
@Olwyn, so the real question becomes, who leaked the details of the failed coup and why? The only reason to make it public would be to de-stabilise Hide’s leadership so they could have another go.
Sorry Olwyn but Rodney Hide is the elected member for Epsom electorate. If ACT sacked him as leader it would have absolutely no effect on him as an MP or on the total seats occupied by ACT due to the fact that Hide holds their only electorate seat.
Hide is now effectively a National MP , since his ‘hide’ has been saved by Key. Will he join National sooner rather than later . You bet that will be his latest ‘dance’ move!
You mean it will be sink or swim for Rodders!
I suspect that given John Boscawen is ACT’s biggest donor after Alan Gibbs he has fair bit of pull inside the party.
@Richard Morgan – you are right. I had taken things one step further and imagined him sacked from the ACT party, and not merely as its leader.
Deborah seems to have forgotten her reasons for getting out of ACT in the first place.
@ghostwalker – “Hide is now effectively a National MP..” agreed – along with most of the Maori party…oh goodie, who next? Perhaps at the next election they could do away with both ACT and Maori as seperate parties – may as well. Both seem to have lost what they represent to some degree.
Actually all this raises an interesting question. If Rodney Hide resigned from the ACT Party, but stayed on in his seat of Epsom as an independent MP, would the other ACT MPs have to resign. Theoretically they would have no reason to occupy any seats, as I’m sure they didn’t get past the 5% margin.
good question Richard…
@ Richard Morgan. No, they didn’t make the 5% margin. If my memory serves me correctly it was 2.9% but I stand to be corrected on that one.
@ Olwyn. It goes to show what a bunch of lily livid MSM journalist wimps we have in this country. Too scared to pop their heads above the parapet. Also investigative journalism
takes time and effort. It’s simpler to go for someone like Goff who is perceived by them to be an easy target.
@ jpwood. “… given John Boscawen is ACT’s biggest donor after Alan Gibbs he has a fair bit of pull inside the party.”
Alan Gibbs was once ACT’s biggest donor but he transferred his millions to the National Party when Brash became the leader. Rodney Hide was set up in his political career by Alan Gibbs in the mid-1990s. He may still be Gibbs’ man in parliament (behind the scenes) which might have a bearing on Key’s reluctance to let Hide go.
Could someone please tell me what I’m doing wrong. My typing looks ok until I hit the submit button and then I find part of a sentence on one line and the rest of it on the next.
Nothing, it happens all the time that the spacing etc changes after you hit submit.
Journalists these days rely on press releases written by spin doctors.
As do a lot of polly ticians i suspect.
@al zhiemer. Yes, journalists do seem to rely on press releases.There are exceptions to the rule, but they have become rare.
@ Anne (8.44pm) A silly spelling error. I meant lily-livered
not livid. Word of advice, don’t comment when you’re tired.
The sooner these ACT idiots disappear completely – the better.
During the last year they have shown themselves to be hypocrites and liars (surprise surprise).
Sir Roger in particular has shown that everything he claimed to stand for during the last 30 years was unimportant and he would happily betray any principle, at any time, without a second thought.
Just pathetic.
My observation is that John Boscawen and Heather Roy are both Free Market Conservatives who are attracted to ACT in a sort of economic right of National sort of way. Sir Roger Douglas is from the Labour ‘backbone club’ that was attracted to the free market as a way of providing better outcomes for workers. Essentially these MPs are aligned philosophically within ACT.
Hide’s agenda is to push ACT into becoming more and more like the Liberterianz/Ayn Rand type party.
There is a natural tension between these groupings in ACT, which has spilled over into this clumsy leadership challenge.
(If anyone can work out where David Garrett stands in all of this, let me know.)
Roger Douglas is past his expiry, in the same way that Don Brash is.
@Anne 8:52 – it looks to me like you’re using the enter button at the end of your line, like you would a typewriter. Don’t use the enter button, just keep typing.