King Midas in reverse

Readers of similar vintage to me may recognise the title - it's pinched from an old Hollies song of the late 1960's referring to someone for whom everything he touched turned to something far removed from gold!!

And so it seems for Labour just at the moment. Crisis follows cirsis, mistake follows mistake and PR shambles follows PR shambles, such as that over John Key's supposed lack of knowledge of New Zealand history. The Herald reports:

"Labour's attempt to paint National leader John Key as unworthy of being Prime Minister because of his comments about colonial history have backfired after National revealed Michael Cullen made a similar comment three years ago.

Dr Cullen yesterday dismissed John Key as having "a profound misunderstanding of New Zealand history" because of a comment he made in an interview on Treaty settlements with Newstalk ZB.

Mr Key described New Zealand as a "country that came peacefully together", saying it was unique because "we are not a country that has come about through civil war or a lot of fighting internally".

The comments drew derision from Prime Minister Helen Clark and Dr Cullen, who accused Mr Key of "a profound misunderstanding of New Zealand history" for ignoring the Maori Land Wars.

However, National fought back. In Parliament Gerry Brownlee read out part of a Waitangi Day 2005 speech by Dr Cullen referring to "a country with a continuous political tradition unbroken by civil war or revolution for over 150 years - something a bare handful of countries can celebrate".

Mr Brownlee also read from Governor-General Anand Satyanand's speech on Waitangi Day this year which said the Treaty was signed with "no shots fired in anger and no occupying armed force or an army waiting to invade" and said there were few other countries "where such monumental change has occurred without a shot being fired".

Mr Brownlee's response seemed to leave Dr Cullen short of an answer. He later said he was referring to the unbroken institution of Parliament."

It's not often that Dr Cullen gets blindsided, which makes yesterday's events even more remarkable. The Standard considered Key's "gaffe" of such national interest that they devoted not one but two threads to it!! It is rumoured that posting there will be light today as "da boyz" chisel the egg from the respective faces!!!