Two Hats becomes Three Hats

Andrew "Two Hats" Little has undergone a change of identity. He is now Andrew "Three Hats" Little - the Taranaki Daily News explains:

In a small room on New Plymouth's Tukapa St Andrew Little last night firmly planted his foot on the first rung of the ladder many think will take him to the country's top job.

The Labour party president was officially confirmed as New Plymouth's candidate for the 2011 general election at the party's Westown headquarters last night, two months after first announcing his plan to stand in the city of his birth.

Many assume winning the New Plymouth seat is the first step on the road to party leadership and eventually the prime minister's office but Mr Little parries away such speculation.

"I am starting at the bottom rung of the ladder. You get into this because you want to be part of a team that is going to shape New Zealand in the next 30 to 40 years and create jobs and lift incomes and that is what I want to do," he said.

He's a busy fellow is our Andrew. He's the general secretary of the EPMU, New Zealand's largest trade union. He's the president of the New Zealand Labour Party. And now his political ambitions begin. We don't know how he does it!

Andrew Little says that he will resign as party president and from the EPMU if he gets elected in New Plymouth. That seems just a little to Jim Andertonish for us, so we'll say the same thing to Andrew Three Hats as we said to Jim; he should put his money where his mouth is, and decide which of his masters that he is going to serve now; the members of the EPMU, the members of the Labour Party, or the voters of New Plymouth.

Y'see, the world hasn't stopped turning since Jonathon Young unseated Harry Duynhoven as the MP for New Plymouth in 2008. Andrew Little will doubtless have a high list placiong next year, and the good folk of New Plymouth might just decide that if Andrew Little cannot make a commitment to them, they won't make a commitment to him. He would be a very foolish chap indeed if he took the support of the New Plymouth public for granted.

The old song says "Wherever I hang my hat; that's my home". Andrew Little needs to decide which of his three hats is the most important, and just where his home will be.