Campaign diary: Winston's wacky wordplay

Say what?

Winston Peters has come up with some wild and wacky allusions in the last few days of the election campaign. First it was Santa Claus and Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer as a metaphor for a grand coalition. Yesterday he turned his rather bewildering vocabulary on Herald columnist Gordon McLauchlan, who seems to have really got under his skin: "Smart alec, arrogant, quiche eating, chardonnay drinking, pinky finger pointing snobbery, fart blossom."

She of little faith

Helen Clark came up with a politically savvy answer for a particularly curly question lobbed at her during a public meeting in Dunedin this week. An audience member asked whether she was a Christian. Not fazed by the rather personal question, the Prime Minister quickly responded. She was brought up by Presbyterian parents so she has a moral conservative background. But she happens to be agnostic.

They said it:

"Winston is an erratic character but it would appear to me that ... if he's going to deliver on his policies, he's actually got to be supporting the centre right, not the centre left." - Act's Rodney Hide has some probably unwelcome advice for the NZ First leader.

"I haven't been talking about coalitions - grand or otherwise. That would be presumptuous." - National leader Bill English on suggestions of a deal with Act, NZ First and United Future.

Where the leaders are:

Helen Clark wraps up her campaign with radio interviews and a series of walkabouts in Auckland.

Bill English has breakfast with Auckland candidates before flying to Christchurch and Invercargill.

Winston Peters campaigns in the Tauranga electorate.

Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons spends the day in the Coromandel; colleague Rod Donald attends university meetings in Christchurch.

Richard Prebble attends Act's campaign closing in Auckland.

Laila Harre attends a mental health forum in Kelston, addresses University of Auckland students and campaigns in Waitakere.

Jim Anderton spends the day in Christchurch.

Peter Dunne will be collecting donations for the Women's Refuge on Courtenay Place in Wellington.

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