A sure sign the tide has turned

National has two Caucus parties a year – Christmas and mid year. I commented at last year’s Xmas party that it was a sign of the tide turning that several former 9th floor staffers were at the Nat’s Party.

Well I missed the late June mid-year  one (as I was overseas) but when I got back I heard proof positive that the tide has gone out for the Government. What was it? The fact that Mai Chen had turned up to the Nat’s party. Can there be any stronger sign of sniffing a change of Government?

One Nat staffer joked to me that they checked the mail the next day to see if Mai Chen had invoiced them for turning up!

Deborah Coddington writes in the HoS about how popular the party was:

It was standing room-only last week at the National Party’s caucus party. People love the winning side. High-class canapes, bubbly, scantily clad young women looking for socially acceptable partners, and not a karaoke machine within cooee (at least when I left to go to a drunken dinner with some Auckland legal reprobates).

I hear the dreaded karaoke machine did make an appearance later!

Deborah looks at all the money the Government is throwing away of trains and the like:

And if Sparc is planning to spend $5.5 million on a website, how much do other Government-funded bodies spend on their sites?

In fact, it’s hard to imagine how to spend this much on a website. I should know, I’ve just spent the past week using WordPress to set up a free one (check it out www.redbankjames.co.nz – I’ve even started a blog. After slagging bloggers for so long I’ve admitted defeat and joined them.)

Welcome to the blogosphere Deborah. And using blog technology to set up a web presence is a very smart idea. A blog is really just a form of content management system – and a CMS which is a lot cheaper and a lot mroe robust than many out there.

At least we’ve got Nicky Hager to amuse us. I’ve always misjudged Hager as someone who took himself too seriously but his latest “expose” is hilarious. If John Key had gone around the press gallery with releases headlined “National Uses Boris Johnson’s Spin Doctors” the hacks would have yawned and asked for real news, like what colour hair dye National’s backbench women use.

Breathless Hager, however, has found the sniff of a conspiracy. I look forward to more revelations, such as Boris’ sister being named Rachel – isn’t that a Biblical name? And wasn’t John Key’s mother a Holocaust survivor? Jewish conspiracy? I think we should be told.

Indeed.