Whatever your opinion of Rodney Hide, he is dead right about one thing. John Key's refusal to work with Winston Peters amounts to a seismic shift in the political landscape.
Listeners to Radio New Zealand's Morning Report could not help noticing there was something very different, even something amiss, when they heard Winston Peters being interviewed by Sean Plunket yesterday.
If - as Labour so vociferously argues - National's new welfare policy is a return to that party's punitive policies of the 1990s, then Labour has serious explaining to do.
Winston Peters has to be brought to his senses. So the Prime Minister has been holding the smelling salts under his nose. Judging from yesterday's angry press conference, they are taking some time to work.
National MPs measure themselves up for seats on the government benches in Parliament - not too obviously, mind you - they might ask themselves who is going to be their equivalent of Michael Cullen if they win the election?
Rarely has the Labour Party been given a dressing down from a supposed ally like the one Jeanette Fitzsimons' dished out in Parliament on Thursday afternoon.
Has Michael Cullen successfully spiked National's plans to offer bigger tax cuts than those he unveiled in Thursday's budget?
