My suspicion is that Winston is sweating it a bit.

One of my early predictions was this was going to sort of be his last term. He’d line up with Labour, get a bunch of stuff across the line, i.e. a port in Northland, a growth fund with millions into Northland, take that to the polls next year, create a bit of history by surviving the MMP curse of small parties in government dying a death, and then walk away some sort of hero.

I may still be right on that.

You’ll notice for the first time at the party chin wag over the weekend we got talk of a succession plan. But what we also got was the youth wing, and isn’t that in and of itself kind of funny, given the party we are talking of, but the youth wing tipped up the policy on pill testing at festivals.

Not that a lot of young people don’t think that’s a sensible idea, but New Zealand First is not a young person’s party ,and the trouble with its “youngens” starting to dictate policy is it’s in direct contrast to what many who vote NZ First would be expecting.

Sort of like all those that voted for New Zealand first and expected national to be government.

Winston’s problem is he’s looking like he’s running a party that doesn’t know what it is. Oh, it can say it’s a handbrake and the sensible middle and what ‘National with a capital N’ should be, but the actions speak louder than the one liners.

And a pro-drug testing party hooked up with Labour in cahoots with the Greens starts to look a little loose for some of your long suffering New Zealand First supporters I would have thought.

Then there is this battle with the Nats. Now, if Simon has any clue he will rule NZ First out and in doing that he will hobble their chances all together, given there is at least a portion of NZ First supporters who are there wanting a National government.

Rule that out, add to that all the aggrieved gun owners, and you might have enough who wander back to, or off, to National to sink NZ First below the five percent mark.

Not that they’re not already there - look at last week’s polls - but most of us who’ve seen this rodeo before know Peters by in large beats polls come the actual poll, so to  look at today’s numbers at four and think he’s done for would be foolish.

But if he spends too much more time bagging the Nats, Simon won’t have to rule him out, given any one who was thinking of voting for NZ First with a National bent will read the writing on the wall. If last time was a surprise when he went with Labour, how can he bag National, hang with Labour for three years and then still pretend he can go either way? No one is falling for it.

So, he’s got conflicting policy, a coalition partner he needs to distance himself from, and that’s before the issue of being associated with things like KiwiBuild and light rail disasters, poll numbers that look worrying, a succession plan to put in place, and the illusion to create that although he hates National he’s perfectly happy to go along with them so he can still play king maker.

Sounds like hard work, and I am not even close to being 74.