KEY POINTS:
Why on Earth is Labour making it so difficult for even their most ardent supporters to love them right now? Is this some sort of test of fealty? You have to stick with us even though we're behaving appallingly?
Helen Clark is big on loyalty - which is vital if one is to have longevity in the political world - but some senior Government members are acting up so badly, they've descended from puerile to infantile.
Trevor Mallard is having an annus horribilis to rival that of Her Majesty's corker of 1992 and no doubt he feels under siege right now with that accountant in Wellington pursuing him through the courts. But that shouldn't preclude him from saying sorry when he's got it wrong.
His savaging of communications consultant Erin Leigh, who left the Environment Ministry after concerns the ministry was being politicised by the Government, appears to be unwarranted. He called her incompetent and sad; the ministry's chief executive Hugh Logan says the briefing he gave to Mallard never intended to reflect on Leigh's professional ability or performance.
Logan is clearly floundering. He's in the gun for his role in the Madeleine Setchell affair and for supplying the wrong information to Mallard in response to a parliamentary question and now he's given an ambiguous briefing that resulted in Trevor Mallard mauling Leigh's reputation. It's not a good look.
But nor is Trevor Mallard's intransigence and lack of grace. What would it hurt to say sorry? He's not going to diminish his manhood by apologising for unnecessary grief. It may, in fact, redeem his reputation among those who think he's the bag man for an increasingly arrogant Government.
Michael Cullen's fury over John Key's jibes in the house seems out of all proportion to the actual offence. And every time John Boscowan's name is mentioned, the Prime Minister and her number two start frothing at the mouth and inferring everyone who marched against the Electoral Finance Bill is a mindless Act supporter being manipulated by a rich puppeteer.
Personally, if I had truckloads of money, I could think of better things to spend it on than half-page ads in daily newspapers exhorting New Zealanders to rise up against the Bill, but it's not my money and Boscowan can spend it how he will.
And while some of the marchers were undoubtedly rabid Labour loathers, not all of them were, and it diminishes the Prime Minister to imply that's the case. Labour's in grave danger of imploding and depriving all the political junkies the sport of a close election next year.
That would be a shame because this has been an extraordinary administration run by an incredibly talented Prime Minister. Let's face it, for all the shrieking and wailing and rending of garments, most people are doing fine. But those at the bottom of the heap are still festering there.
I first became aware children were dying at their parents' hands when Delcelia Whittaker was murdered back in the early 90s. Not much seems to have changed since then.
Violent crimes are on the increase, burglaries are a fact of life and we're jailing more people than any other country except the US. I don't think the election of a National Government would transform New Zealand into a halcyon bucolic paradise where no children were harmed in the creation of a healthy GDP.
However, I'm becoming a political agnostic. Intuitively, I believe well- meaning left-leaning policies and state intervention are the answers to helping the disaffected, but in the absence of any proof after nine years in that direction, I'm suspending my belief. Instead of expending so much energy on politics, I'd love to see this Government spend some time on policies. We really don't care about the petty power plays going on in the House. We don't care who called whom a liar, or a cheat, or a hypocrite.
We care about this country - about our own wellbeing and those who are struggling. And while there is mutually assured destruction going on in Wellington, politicians are letting down constituents - and themselves.
