If you’re like me, you don’t put much store in polls. Everything is so corrupt these days, its hard to trust any source of information. That said, let’s assume the results of the latest Roy Morgan poll are about as reliable as we can expect, and try and make sense of the confusing results.

The most striking outcome is a major fall in support for the National party. This is somewhat softened by a fall in the number of people who say the country is headed in the right direction. What?

Surely if fewer people are happy about the country’s direction, shouldn’t that mean a rise in support for the Nats? No, the Nats have fallen 6% so something is out of kilter here. Labour support has conversely remained more or less the same. How can this be so if direction approval has fallen by 6 to 8%?

So can this conundrum be solved? Its not easy, but one answer could be that those who are unhappy with the direction of the country don’t see the Nats as a solution. ACT’s vote increased 3.5%, and this rise might support the proposition that the Nats in their current format are just unpalatable to the electorate.

So the question then becomes “Why?” Obviously Judith Collins is not appealing, but what else is there? The increase in the ACT vote indicates some might see the Nats as too much like Labour, which is a refrain one sees everywhere, and is nothing new.

My view is the Nats have no solid ideological conviction or political direction because the party is too infiltrated by the left, who prevent the solidarity and unity that is needed to take it to Labour and their media comrades. This weakness not only makes them ineffective as a party, but naturally also affects their electoral support.

Take Todd Muller for example. The man who totally destroyed any chance the party had of winning the last election. The attached illustration shows a Facebook post from him that clearly indicates he is in the wrong party. How can the Nats firm up their opposition to Labour with white ants like Todd chewing away their ideological foundations?

The Nats main problem IMHO is the lack of a strong coherent message, and they won’t have one until the progressives like Muller (and Luxon, yes he’s another no hoping Obama style leftist warmist) are dumped from the party, and Ms Collins is replaced by someone who can not only broadcast but more importantly sell that strong message.

The Nats need a new leader, they need to decide what they stand for, and they not only need to tell the electorate what that is, but convince voters its the better choice. The new leader must be someone capable of making the argument and drawing voters to it.

So there is the mission. It can’t be that hard. Other parties do it all the time. Getting rid of Muller and like lefties is the first step. After that, its deciding on a direction and a leader. Pity Sid Holland couldn’t come back to the fray. Dead for so many years, he’ still probably the best bet the Nats have right now.