SEVENTEEN YEARS HAVE PASSED since Don Brash gave his in/famous âNationhoodâ speech to the Orewa Rotary Club. On the strength of the sentiments communicated in that address, the Brash-led National Party leapt from a risible 28 percent in the polls to 45 percent. In a single 17-point bound, National was free of the clutches of its crushing 2002 election defeat. Had, Nationalâs chief strategist, Steven Joyce, not played silly-buggers with the Exclusive Brethren Church, there was every chance that 18 months later Brash would have become prime minister.
The question is: Can Nationalâs current leader, Judith Collins, rely upon Brashâs Nationhood Souffle recipe to produce an equally dramatic rise in her partyâs fortunes? Or, in the intervening years, has the ideology of âTreatyismâ persuaded enough New Zealanders to renounce the ideas which, in 2004, transformed National overnight into a serious electoral contender? More to the point, does Collins sh