There’s a lot of talk about it being the Queen’s annus horribilis, but I’d hazard a guess that closer to home it could also be Winston Peters.

He had the weeks off this year for secret surgery that he made so cloak and dagger it became a big guessing game as to what was going on turned out to be just a knee op. Not sure why he didn’t say that at the outset to quell the mystery.

Oh that’s right yes I do, because he’s Winston Peters.

He’s had the court case he took which backfired on him, after huffing and puffing to the media that National had leaked his overpayment Super saga... only to admit in court that he didn’t actually believe it was them who leaked after all.

He made matters worse for himself there in terms of personal PR by blowing the whole thing up and re-litigating it.. which seemed a Prince Andrew style move blowing up in his own face.

Then just as the headlines on that started to subside, up flare allegations yesterday of serious electoral law breaches by not declaring party donations.

It was reported that ‘almost half a million dollars in political donations were hidden inside a secret slush fund'.

That’s pretty damning.

No wonder Winston lashed out when asked about it and called the reporter a ‘psycho’.

The claims made included that donations were used to ‘fund election campaigns, pay for legal advice, fund a $5000 day at the races and even pay an IRD bill.’

Unfortunately the media asked Tracy Martin about it, which is an interesting tack given her answers on every subject almost without fail are, “I don’t know.”

Sure enough, when approached, she said, she “didn’t know anything,” and that she found the news reports, “interesting.”

You’ve never seen a senior MP and government minister more out of the loop.

Winston is on the attack of course, running his standard line of NZ First against the world, and the media being scum.

It’s a Trump-esque approach. It remains to be seen if it’ll work.

I wonder in all of this though how the PM feels. She won’t say of course, when asked, she hadn’t yet formed a view, as usual.

But it must be a bit of an annus horribilis for her too, when you’ve got Shane Jones grabbing headlines for all the wrong reasons every second week, and you’ve got Winston bouncing in and out of hot water too.

The NZ First arm of the coalition seem out of control, and the PM seems either unable or unwilling to reign them in.

Is it because she feels beholden to them for her place of power?

Or does she just prefer a head in sand approach to chaos?

Either way, if she won't do anything, and if National won’t rule them out yet either, the only sensible course of action is for their remaining voters to wake up, and rule NZ First out next year.