THE CLEVEREST POLITICAL TRICK Jacinda Ardern has pulled off, so far, is her “Team of Five Million”. New Zealanders love teams. No matter whether it’s the All Blacks or the Silver Ferns, the Black Caps or Team New Zealand, we all take a vicarious thrill from the success of our sporting heroes and heroines. In her whole political career, putting every Kiwi in the national team that defeated the COVID-19 virus is easily Jacinda Ardern’s smartest move. What has Judith Collins got to set against the Prime Minister’s formidably large backing-band?

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Known principally for his political commentaries in The Dominion Post, The ODT, The Press and the late, lamented Independent, and for "No Left Turn", his 2007 history of the Left/Right struggle in New...