Muller and Kaye muddied the National proposition for existing blue voters and didn't provide anything compelling to shift the fungible centre in their direction. This has resulted in a clearer and stronger mandate for Collins. Had she taken over from Bridges there'd have been plenty of commentators suggesting there were/are better alternatives... hard to make that argument now.

Regardless of the outcome in September, the clean out is a good thing. National need to reclaim their identity. Their attempt to gain the middle ground lacked any authenticity.

Collins is polarizing, but will be far more definitive and combative - you're either picking her or your not. There'll be alot less of the wishy-washy "I'll probably vote blue because I don't like red" at the pub. Whether that's a good thing, or not, remains to be seen.

Act and Seymour are doing a good job, but for what outcome? Voting for them is a longer term proposition. In the short term, all it does is increase their volume, not their influence.

Those voters largely focused on the economy will want to avoid a red or red/green government. Therefore, if National can't markedly improve it's polling results over the next couple of months to convince voters they actually have any chance of governing, Winston may well cruise back in. For the right this will likely be the lesser of two evils... Labour/Greens + NZF not doing anything is better than Labour or Labour/Greens doing something.