FOR THE PAST WEEK most of the mainstream news media has been, to paraphrase Judith Collins, apologising for being white. For a party calling itself “National”, this astonishing display should have been received as manna from heaven.

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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...