Northland. By-election

"It's a deal, it's a deal" yelled Duncan Garner on Tv3's Northland By-election Special programme at 9.30 last night just after the news that Winston Peters had won with a 4000 vote majority.

"Labour has lost the moral high ground" he roared on. You can do that under MMP, Garner reckoned, and they just used the system like everyone else.

 But by-elections are not fought by MMP rules at all; they are simple, old-fashioned First-past-the-post races. One would imagine political commentators would know that. But the whole programme was of pretty poor quality: a bit amateur I thought when you compare it with the kind of quality presentation typical of Corin Dann on TVOne.

And the most important point is that there was no deal between the two opposition parties: no tea-meeting, no agreement beforehand, nothing like the Epsom arrangement between John Key and Act to enable Act to get a seat in Parliament when they hadn't a hope of getting in on their own steam.

Northland means one additional seat for a party that already is into double figures in the House. And it means that the Leader of the Opposition now leads a total of 57 members, not enough to defeat the National Government, but because of the make-up of the Government Coalition enough to make the going more uncomfortable from here on.

We used to live in the Bay of Islands many years ago. It was then in the old Hobson electorate. There was a local saying that if a sheep stood for the National Party it would get in. And several members in those days were pretty much like that. I remember one local National Party leader telling me their member had been told to do some useful work or he wouldn't be the candidate at the next election.

I remember supporting one candidate Richard Hendry. We toured the Main Street of Kawakawa in the days when real freight trains puffed down the tracks, with a loud-hailer. We stopped at each corner and both extolled the virtues of Norman Kirk. People listened politely and then went away and voted for that decade's sheep.

The next election the candidate was a Kaikohe lawyer called David Lange, who had a quick turn of wit, plenty of good one-liners and a battered old Rover 90 that sagged noticeably when he got into the driver's seat. After that he was promoted to the safe seat of Mangere and started his rise in the ranks of MPs.

So Winston Peters' victory is a personal triumph, partly thanks to strategic voting by Labour supporters, many of whom probably voted for Social Credit in the old days anyway, and partly thanks to National being deserted by a 10% chunk of its own former supporters. Whatever our opinion he is a seasoned campaigner and has made his contribution to our political life over many years. He deserves a couple of cheers. And our thanks at least.