Heather du Plessis-Allan: Chris Luxon should use his time in isolation to think about lifting National's game

Well, it might not be altogether a bad thing for Christopher Luxon that he’s got the ‘rona today and has to isolate.

Because it means he didn’t have to front up for the media at Parliament and answer awkward questions about why there is a real chance now that he could lose the election to a party that has been so bad over the last six years, it’s been described as the worst Government in living memory.

Because that’s happening isn’t it? Labour could actually win the election.

Which is remarkable when you think that National was leading all the polls for a year, and now it is neck and neck with the worst Government in our lives.

Hipkins is doing what it takes to win. He's nuking a lot of the stupid stuff you hated about his party, he seems like a nice enough guy with a friendly face, and he’s giving everyone money.

Basically, when he’s finished with Labour, it will not resemble the unpopular, distracted, wasteful mess it was under Jacinda.

Yeah, there’s still heaps for real die-hards to be grumpy about. Labour have wasted incredible amounts of time and money pursuing these policies for years, which he now reckons “weren’t going to actually deliver the sorts of returns that we would want for that level of investment”.

If he thinks that now, he must’ve thought that before. So why didn’t he try nuking it as a senior member of Jacinda’s kitchen Cabinet?

But voters are quick to forget, and we will forget how much money he and Labour wasted as long as they aren’t doing it anymore.

National is going to have to lift its game big time. Up to now, it’s basically been cruising through on being the party that wasn’t Labour.

As in, Labour sucks, we’re not Labour, vote for us.

But beyond that, National hasn’t really sold us any big ideas, a vision for the future, a plan to make New Zealand properly first world again. 

They're going to have to come with one. Because if they don’t, at this rate Labour will win.

Because if voters have to choose between two middle of the road, boring parties, a lot will choose the devil they know, Hipkins, over the devil they don’t, Luxon.

So again, maybe not an altogether bad thing that Luxon is in isolation. Because it might give him a bit of thinking time.

What does National want for this country? What’s the big plan? How will they not lose the election?

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