Fire Will Burn

The bile from the Jami-Lee Ross affair must be corrosive to the Opposition and its leader.

- Bill Ralston

Chris Carter, Richard Worth, Aaron Gilmore, Pansy Wong and Todd Barclay are all former MPs who skulked off from Parliament in the past decade after falling out with their leader. They disappeared quietly into relative obscurity, but I like to think they are all sitting together over a beer somewhere sniggering and watching Jami-Lee Ross take a can of petrol, pour it over Simon Bridges and then strike a match.

Ross has quit to stand again in a by-election in Botany. It is an act of supreme bravado Winston Peters would be proud of. Actually, come to think of it, Peters did pretty much the same to his leader, Jim Bolger, in 1991. However, Ross may not have the same success as Peters had then.

Ross got 63% of the vote in Botany at the last election. A strong National candidate could take more than half of that vote off him, while Labour’s candidate could improve on the 25% slice its man got last time.