Oh, the irony

Doubtless the left will have some fun over this:

Act's law and order spokesman, MP David Garrett, was convicted of assault in 2002 in Tonga, he confirmed last night.

Mr Garrett, who led the party's "three strikes" policy on tougher sentencing for serious violent offences, has not publicly disclosed his conviction.

But Act leader Rodney Hide said Mr Garrett had disclosed it to him before he joined the Act list at No 5 for the 2008 election.

He did not believe Mr Garrett had committed assault and said he preferred to judge him on his "outstanding" record as an MP.

We're sure that there will be a whole lot of nasty innuendo from the left. Given Act's strong law and order stance, there is a certain irony in this "revelation". After all the drama with Heather Roy, it's the last thing that Act needs.

We reckon however that there would be an even greater sense of irony if the faux outrage from the left was led by the Hon Trevor Mallard, who knows a bit about these things.