Bill Ralston suggests today in the Herald on Sunday that the timing of the election is all wrong for the Government. He looks at both economic and political factors. Here is the political section
The Government wanted to go into this election portraying National as bumbling, incompetent, lacking experience and secretly plotting to take us back to Rogernomics and Ruthenasia.
Instead, mainly because of the drawn-out debacle of the Winston Peters affair, the Government looks tired, hamstrung, held to ransom and hiding some stinky secrets.
Although the Privileges Committee might render a verdict soon, I doubt that the Electoral Commission, the police or the Serious Fraud Office will have completed their inquiries by the time we vote. Unless Prime Minister Helen Clark fires Peters out of exasperation, there is no immediate solution in sight. I suspect there were times this week when Clark hoped the Swiss-based Hadron Particle Collider really would create a black hole and swallow up her troublesome Foreign Minister before polling day.
