Remembering Bill.
Five years ago today Bill English, National Party leader and former Prime Minister of NZ, resigned. Christopher Luxon may be considered by some the second coming, but poor old Bill was always coming second.
He fought two elections as leader for two losses. The first in 2002 was a complete thrashing - National lost 12 seats at the election and received just under 21% of the party vote. To put that in perspective, under Judith Collins in the landslide election of 2020, when National lost almost all their electorate MPs, they actually got 5% more of the party vote than Bill had managed as leader.
Bill was partially redeemed following his first loss as the long time lieutenant of John Key. During that time he had the great fortune to preside over a “Rockstar Economy” as Finance Minister, but sadly success continued to elude Bill as he ran deficit after deficit. More deficits in a row than either Muldoon or Douglas racked up.
Despite the popularity of the duo by 2015 Bill was starting to worry about the legacy he and Key would leave behind:
Bill Hey JK, you remember those halcyon days leading up to the election when you told us we were on the “cusp of something special?”
John No Bill, I don’t recall ever saying that. I’m sure if I said anything it would have had something to do with cleaning up the mess that Labour left us with.
Bill Good one boss, damn it would be nice to only have a National debt of $18 billion again and not $101 billion eh!
John Bill, things are much better under National, haven’t you been listening to Mike Hosking? I thought that was compulsory since we got rid of Campbell.
Bill Seriously JK, google “cusp of something special” and your name, people are going to start asking questions – going all-in on dairy isn’t working.
John No more questions Bill, we are on the cusp of something special – I just don’t think you appreciate the limited scope of what I meant by “we”.
Bill That’s a bit dark JK – creepy in an Illuminati way – you’re joking though eh JK?
John Lol - course I am Bill, course I am – just wait till you see the TPPA deal hahahahaha – kidding Bill I’m kidding, best you go and have a chat with Uncle Mike – you’ll feel better.
Bill was given one of the more remarkable second chances in NZ political history when his partner John Key saw the writing on the wall and resigned. The second election with Bill English as leader, in 2017, was so close that many people, including journalists, who didn’t understand our electoral system actually claimed that he won!
The loss was a bitter pill for English who had even enrolled his former boss on the campaign trail to try and win. As we see in this transcript of a secret recording between Bank-Man and the Boy-Blunder from before the 2017 election:
