Commentary

Three months out from the election, the numbers are going National's way. But are they going the right way for the longer term?

Rex Tillerson was here last Tuesday, days after the New York Attorney-general filed an action against the firm he headed.

Opinion polls tell us the republic is some way off. William, Kate, George and Charlotte keep us swooning.

Steven Joyce's well foreshadowed reshuffle last Thursday of tax thresholds, rebates and allowances tells us there is unfinished business from the Ruth Richardson era.

The usual stream of pre-Budget dish-outs has this year swelled to a torrent. What's up? An election.

It is election time in big bits of Europe and nearing election time here. Is there an Emmanuel Macron lurking in our shadows?

The ``Jacinda effect'' appears to have wisped away. Here and there in the Labour Party one can hear glum whispers of three more ``long years'' in opposition.

The Budget is three weeks away. Money is being sprayed around. It's election year.

John Clarke was an Australian. In death he was celebrated here as if he was one of us. This country is tiny. We have to live outside our shores as well as within.

What is the link between social media and Easter? Don't we live in a secular society now? Isn't Easter just a paid holiday from work?

Steven Joyce will by now have set the main parameters for his first budget on May 25. He will likely have ballparked the big spending and tax and rebate items.

There are no facts, only events. That's the advice some years back from a Victoria University history academic who has published several event-filled books.

Is Bill English slipping behind the play? A 1990s Cabinet colleague, Simon Upton, last Tuesday in effect said he is.

National is an income-tax-raising party. Act New Zealand's David Seymour has the numbers. So what's this talk about cuts?

Bill English last year famously called his policy line ``incremental radicalism''. Last week, he did some ``incremental incrementalism''. How will that run on ``social media'' in September?

Bill English has been the Cabinet's king advocate of data-mining. Last week he turned to anecdotes. That echoes his squeeze on science funding.

Jacinda Ardern is now standing in Helen Clark's shoes. Can she stand as tall?

Numbers count in politics. Seven months from the election, how do they stack?

On Sunday, Andrew Little and Metiria Turei jointly presented themselves as a two-party ``government in waiting'' for voters to switch to.