Offbeat question: Boxing Bill our captain

By VERNON SMALL

Bill English in shock poll lead.

Well, not really.

But there is some good news for the National leader when it comes to a mix of leadership and sporting prowess.

Boxing Bill, with 28 per cent backing, tops a special Herald-DigiPoll survey which asked respondents which party leader they would pick to captain their sports team.

Perhaps he would do better going for Reuben Thorne's job than Helen Clark's.

Cross-country skier Helen Clark gets the nod to lead the team from 23.3 per cent of you - less than half her rating as preferred prime minister. Too much of a loner maybe, or perhaps she inhibits the individual flair of team members.

And who said Winston Peters was not a team player? Mr Peters, who has been sacked from Cabinet by two prime ministers, gets 18.6 per cent support - four times his ranking as preferred PM.

Some 5.3 per cent opted for the crash-tackling approach of Act leader Richard Prebble, although perhaps women think he is too short for netball.

Twice as many men as women would have him as team leader.

As for the Greens' co-leadership, they may get regular dancing practice at party gatherings, but they don't rate as skippers.

Jeanette Fitzsimons was picked by 2 per cent and Rod Donald by only 1.1 per cent.

With that support they would be lucky to get off the (cross)bench.

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