If there is a perfect way to leave politics, Bill English has probably done it. He leaves with his party at the top of the polls after nine years in government and the economy it managed still strong.
As he was announcing his retirement yesterday, the Treasury revealed a larger than expected Budget surplus for the second half of last year, the economy having generated $600 million more tax for the new Labour-led Government.
But what makes his departure possibly unique is that his final election was not the defeat that eventually has come to all previous prime ministers who stayed the course. His government was denied a fourth term by a small party that put the second-placed party in power for the first time under MMP.
The outcome made retirement more difficult, it risks unsettling the party's position. The National caucus now has to decide whether its next leader ought to be someone who can maintain the legacy of the previous Government or present a new face to the voters. That is a subject for another day. His remarkable career deserves recognition first.
He came into Parliament at just 28 with the National landslide in 1990. The country was in the most painful phase of economic reform, and recession. Though he had come from the Treasury, English was not a radical reformer. He watched that Government become the most unpopular in recent history as Finance Minister Ruth Richardson cut public spending. National survived the 1993 election by one seat. It was a scare English never forgot.
