Tick, tock

John Armstrong suggests that the clock is ticking on Rodney Hide's leadership - he opines:

The extraordinary and highly damaging revelations in Heather Roy's 82-page statement of defence prepared for Tuesday's showdown over Act's deputy leadership raise serious questions about Rodney Hide remaining as leader.

So serious, in fact, that it seemed at one point yesterday that the best thing Hide could do was resign the leadership and let the party's new deputy, John Boscawen, take over the reins and stand for Act in Epsom in his place.

Act then might have a chance of retaining a toehold in Parliament after next year's election.

That's a fairly extreme suggestion by Armstrong, but he might not be too far off the mark. He then notes that there was some form of public reconciliation last night with Heather Roy, adding:

The trouble is the horse has long left the stable. After the events of recent days, it takes a lot to believe that last night's belated attempt to bolt the door by getting Hide and Roy seated together for the cameras in what looked like a very stage-managed, very icy and possibly very temporary truce is truly an indication that things are now hunky-dory.

And Armstrong suggests that National will be keeping a very close eye on the way this whole affair pans out - he writes:

National now has to weigh up whether its supporters can still stomach Hide and whether it should cut its losses and stand a strong candidate in Epsom in case continued association with Hide starts to damage its high party vote in the blue-ribbon electorate - or worse, though still highly unlikely, because Act's follies could allow Labour to come through the middle and win the seat.

We agree. We have no doubt that there will be some robust discussions between the leaderships of Act and National, and that Epsom will be at the forefront of said discussions. Interesting times await us as Act tries to right its sinking ship which may, just may have taken on too much water this time.