Saturday mornings at National Party conferences usually mean a lengthy discourse on the economy from Finance Minister Bill English, complete with copious complicated graphs.
Those props were missing yesterday - probably much to the relief of delegates who, the night before, had enjoyed too much of the home brew produced by Cabinet minister and Nelson MP Nick Smith.
Rather than home brew, English was more interested in Smith's observation that the last four governments had struck major trouble in their fifth year in power, with internal dissent and MPs joining other parties.
In contrast, National's fifth year has the party high in the polls and no obvious tensions.
English argued these fortuitous circumstances presented it with a "unique opportunity" to break the pattern of New Zealand's stop-start economic reforms.
