As Winston Peters heads into the Pike River mine there's bound to be a canary in his pocket. If it karks then he'll scarper for the surface, only trouble is Bill English may already have sealed the exit, removing a potential headache at the next election.
But seriously, the wily old campaigner stole the thunder as his hapless political opponents scrapped over what was the right thing to do for the grieving families of the 29 miners who perished there six years ago.
Some of them were at Parliament yesterday along with their tireless spokesman Bernie Monk who lost a son in the mine. They insist it's now safe to re-enter the mine and brought with them a report to prove it. The opposition politicians turned out showing solidarity with them with Labour's Andrew Little saying an independent safety expert should be brought in to decide for once and for all whether the mine can be entered.
But it was Peters who struck a chord, no doubt buoyed on by the chants of "Winston for Prime Minister," he made the offer of being the first one to go into the mine, also convinced it was safe after reading the reports.
Afterwards the 71-year-old veteran politician insisted he was deadly serious. And what's more he's had experience, he says, working underground, forging the Island Benn tunnel in Australia's Snowy Mountains in the late 60s and early 70s.
