"Chewing dead rats"

So, Judith Tizard isn't going to take up the list seat that was lawfully hers. But that hasn't stopped her firing a shot across Phil Goff's bow - check this out, from the Herald:

Former Auckland Central MP Judith Tizard will not return to Parliament on Labour's list.

Ms Tizard announced her decision on TV One's Q & A programme today.

She told interviewer Guyon Espiner that Labour leader Phil Goff sounded "like he was chewing on dead rats" when he told her that it was her decision and she would be welcome back.

Ms Tizard's decision has lanced one boil for Phil Goff and Andrew Little. However Labour is still going to have to defend its promotion of Louisa Wall, the SIXTH cab off the rank if none of those ranked below Tizard take up their legal option.

Surely, if Louisa Wall had been seen as the future of the Labour Party she would have received a plum list placing in 2008 like Jacinda Ardern, and the other "future of the Labour Party" list candidate, Rajan Prasad, the former Race Relations Conciliator. Instead, she languished below a series of sitting MP's, many of whom who were rejected by their electorates as well as the nationwide party vote.

Andrew Little is the winner here; another union-annointed candidate will join Labour's caucus. Deborah Coddington has suggested in this morning's Herald on Sunday that it will be Little who emerges as the likeliest candidate to challenge Phil Goff after the November election - she opines:

Phil Goff might well insist the Labour caucus is united behind him, as he did when the front bench emerged from their three-hour crisis meeting in Dunedin on Tuesday.

And mark my words: after the November election they will continue to be right behind him. But they'll be helping Andrew Little, new Labour MP and the next leader, thrust the dagger in Goff's back.

Little stepped down as party president yesterday to contest the New Plymouth seat, currently held by National's invisible Jonathan Young by a very slim majority of 105 votes.

Little, a Taranaki boy, will get a high list placing, but to be leader of the party, and ultimately prime minister, he'll need a constituency seat. So if he doesn't win New Plymouth at this election, he'll take it in 2015. What Andrew wants Andrew gets.

"What Andrew wants Andrew gets". Oh dear; that does NOT bode well for Phil Goff, especially after the snub he delivered to Andrew Little after the Darren Hughes affair. There may have been a moment today when Phil Goff breathed more easily, but we doubt that it is going to last, and we wonder how many dead rats await Phil Goff's mastication.