Richard Moore: Dealing with Guildford

Crikey, the election day is upon us and if we look six days into the future we can celebrate.

The histrionics will be over and we won't have to hear so much from those who reckon they know better than we voters.

We'll have made our decisions and then the horsetrading begins.

Democracy will be dead for another three years until the people we pay to lead us, need us again.

They'll ignore our opinions until 2014 and after that they'll suck up to us like remora fish on sharks.

So how will the poll go? Well, while most are tipping an easy Nats win I reckon it is going to be decided by the minor parties.

Labour by itself is right out of it, but those minor groups could be crucial in bringing them close.

I know people are fed up with "Teagate" - where the Prime Minister met with an Act Party candidate and the pair was recorded saying some potentially dodgy things - but it actually is important ... not so much in what occurred, but was has happened in the aftermath.

By calling in the coppers to investigate an alleged "secret recording" John Key has shown a side not previously seen.

And I do not believe it to be a flattering one.

Gone is the smile and it is hello to a snarl.

It wouldn't have done him any harm to release the recording and 'fess up to anything that was potentially damaging.

And while Act is looking like the Titanic, NZ First's Winnie the Peters is staging a Lazarus-like comeback that could see him decide who, or who is not, in power.

I've decided on my seat vote, as in my dealings with them the local candidates have been good people.

The party vote, however, is a different story and, like many voters, I have still to pick which party gets my support.

I'll be keenly watching over the next few days and will place my mark for the party that I feel will act in the best interests - not greedy wants - of this nation.

GEE I admire Zac Guildford.

He's good looking, can play a bit of rugger, rides a scooter about as well as I do and, seemingly, can do anything he blinking well likes no matter what effect that has on other people.

Zac is a rugby poster boy and because of his sporting ability is allowed to get away with criminal behaviour in the Cook Islands.

All he has to do is look dewy eyed at a TV camera, maybe look a little crestfallen - although that may just be the hangover - mumble a well-practised apology and, well, that'll probably be that.

I see another Zac. I see a bloke who disturbs the serenity of what is one of the most peaceful nations on Earth - the Cook Islands. Having recently been there I am offended by any obnoxious drunk who thinks he can hit people in its bars. I see a tosser who rides a scooter while plastered, that is before getting plastered for his injuries after he falls off it.

And I see someone who verbally harasses a female athlete and scares her so much with his boorish behaviour she feels the needs to hide from him in a dairy.

What a shining example of an All Black to show the world. And what a perfect guest for Rarotongan authorities to have to deal with.

What is really infuriating is that somehow he was able to behave like a pig, face a few tsk-tsks, say he has a problem and then basically gets let off.

Dealing with Guildford can't be difficult. Stop him drinking. Use a 24-hour minder if necessary.

After all, somehow he was smuggled out of Rarotonga without going through Customs, or security and held up scores of other passengers who had their flight delayed because of the fleeing star.

Having made that 1am hellflight from Rarotonga the idea of having it put back by an hour to get an All Black on board would have me seeking him out and giving him a bollocking that no one else seems interested in doing.

Zac, if you have a drinking problem, get help. Even an All Black should understand that.

richard@richardmoore.com