Jenny Shipley's own assessment of her first year leading National in Opposition is a modest sort of boast.
"It's as good a performance as you'll see in terms of a party avoiding imploding in on itself and scratching its eyes out," she told the Herald.
Claiming mere survival after election defeat may be the most convenient way of measuring success in what has been a very patchy year for National.
Shipley appears to be regaining confidence after her heart problems in June and a roasting from her colleagues in September for making policy unilaterally on the Singapore free trade deal.
The party's high point was its attack with Act on the Employment Relations Bill. It is hard to think of another.
MPs surprised themselves as much as anyone jumping from 30.5 per cent on election night to about 40 per cent polling fairly consistently now.
As Shipley comments, it says as much about the Government's failings on Maori policy and the soft vote as it does about National.
There is little apparent confidence around Shipley's circles that the same support will be sustained next year - (you would say that wouldn't you if you don't want falling polls to trigger leadership speculation.)
But all the signs point to a decidedly rugged year ahead for the party.
It still has internal policy battles to wage between the dries - those Treasury-trained ministers who helped drive the post-1984 reforms - and the pragmatists as the party shifts towards the centre.
The organisation is heading for a distracting leadership fight - PR woman Michelle Boag has all but declared a campaign to roll party president John Slater.
An early fight next year is possible for the deputy leadership.
There is also distinct uncertainty about who will lead the party in 2002, with Bill English preparing himself if party support slumps.
And a party facing its own looming problems against a rosier rural outlook is no recipe for success.
English's own advice to the caucus says it all. "The easy bit is over," he wrote.
The message was overshadowed by the fact that it was found in a memo left in the Beehive cafeteria, but his concerns were well-founded.
As one of his colleagues almost lamented, rural New Zealand will be awash in dosh next year, with commodity prices near record highs and the exchange rate hugely favourable to exporters.
There's no point in making a sow's ear of a silk purse.
As English pointed out, National will have to exploit other factors, like low growth and high petrol prices.
His private worries of what National should do when the economy starts humming have been used with devastating effect in the House. Honorary life membership of the Labour Party for English is the latest tease.
He will recover his dignity before long, but the reality is that the brat-pack's star is looking decidedly dull these days.
English's blue came one day after frontbench colleague Nick Smith made an ass of himself promoting a scandal which turned belly-up when costings on floor rugs spent by SOE Meridian proved wrong.
Had he been right, it would have been the first memorable besting of the Government by the Opposition since Murray McCully exposed problems in Local Government New Zealand in August.
But the two latest incidents have reinforced the view that National is being outwitted in the House in question time, a domain which the Opposition should make its own.
Instead, when they have a will to, Government frontbenchers Michael Cullen, Trevor Mallard, Phil Goff and Jim Anderton toy with National counterparts like cats pawing injured birds.
National has got worse in the House over the year, not better, and few deny that privately.
The House has a big effect on image and morale and the finger is being pointed at another brat-packer, Roger Sowry, shadow leader of the House.
The poor performance is damaging his chances of securing the deputy's job next year.
Big booming junior whip Gerry Brownlee is being mentioned as an alternative. And the avuncular Max Bradford can't be discounted.
National are poor losers and blame is not confined to Sowry.
McCully is employing a deliberate strategy of singling out journalists for attack, accusing them of collaborating with Labour.
Ironically, McCully has become a political Lazarus, and is widely recognised as the outstanding National performer who is making hits for his party.
Opposition clearly suits his tactical skills and machiavellian nature.
Perhaps having been the target as a minister of a long, sustained and successful attack in which he lost the tourism portfolio last year, he is better tuned to what works and what doesn't.
In the past two weeks, McCully has assumed the lead role in pressing the Government on the Closing the Gaps backtrack.
A backdown on Labour's flagship policy should be fertile ground for National. McCully is intent on showing that nothing, in fact, has changed and he is already getting under the Government's skin.
His success serves only to highlight the struggle in Opposition among his colleagues, many of whom will be assessing their futures over the summer: Doug Kidd, Max Bradford, John Luxton, Maurice Williamson, Warren Kyd, Lockwood Smith and the dull but worthy deputy leader, Wyatt Creech.
National lost depth last term with the departures of Jim Bolger, Bill Birch, Don McKinnon and Paul East. It can ill afford another sweeping clean-out.
Creech may be advised to relinquish his post for fresher blood but stay on in Parliament. He may be an unsuccessful deputy but he was, after all, a successful Minister of Education and Health, the latter of which may well become a sitting target for the Opposition.
Replacing the party president next year is risky.
Boag is said to be a better corporate fundraiser and a sharper organiser than Slater, who himself is no slug.
But some suggest she should minimise damage from a bitter fight and use her obvious talents as campaign manager in 2002.
Shipley says she is agnostic on who should be party president - "I've got a lovely problem."
With the rocky road ahead for the party and leadership tensions likely to grow next year, it is the last problem she needs.
<i>The week in Politics:</i> Making most of a tight spot
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