Annette King was widely seen in the inner circle of the Labour Party as the glue that kept the caucus together, particularly under the Andrew Little leadership. Under the other three leaders since Helen Clark the party was forever fraying at the edges and spectacularly came unstuck on a number of occasions.
Now the woman, who was a pre schooler when King first came into Parliament following Muldoon's schnapps election, Jacinda Ardern has got to show the same sort of stickability. It won't be hard this side of the election, essentially because Labour has no choice but to present a united front.
But if Little can't pull it off there'll be no glue strong enough to hold it together. And if he does manage to knock the Nats off their privileged perch then Ardern's deputy leadership will mean diddly squat. Chances of her being the deputy Prime Minister would be much less than Winston Peters once again sliding into the seat, providing he can fight off The Greens who've been coveting it for yonks.
On nominating Ardern for the deputy leader's job, Little proudly declared that it's about setting them up for Government, putting the team in place. In reality winning the Treasury benches is about connecting with the electorate and that's specifically the job of the leader, the deputy is neither here nor there.
