What a sordid, sloppy mess, eh?

Meka Whaitiri is off, we still don’t know why and, somehow, she escapes the party hopping laws, so gets to stay on as an MP.

Does that, or does that not, sum up the malaise and general mess with which this country is currently run?

Poor old Megan Woods yesterday on the show didn’t have a clue and, as it turns out, who can blame her?

No one had a clue.

How can you have a senior player in your party and have literally no idea they are bailing and, when they do bail, no idea why?

It speaks very poorly of Whaitiri. Not telling anyone is the height of rudeness.

The fact Kiri Allen was dispatched to try and get some details, and failed, tells you that must have been one spectacularly dysfunctional relationship.

What does it say about Chris Hipkins leadership that he didn’t have a clue?

What does it say about Whaitiri's mindset that she didn’t think it necessary to offer any explanation to anyone?

She must have approached the Māori party because if you were the Māori Party, why would you think of ringing up an MP who has given no indication of being disgruntled?

Or do the Māori Party just ring up all Māori MP's all the time, just in case they want to jump?

To be fair to the Māori Party this is a coup, and a good one. It gives them some credit, it gives them headlines and it gives them renewed hope in the election.

Then we have the so-called party hopping laws. I thought we had dealt with this? I thought Winston Peters had railed endlessly about the shabby way some MP's treat the system?

And yet all these years after Turia and Alamein Kopu, here we are still watching them watch their back, feather their nests, protect their interests and collect the taxpayer's money.

From a broader point of view this is a Government in its death throes.

The economy is shot, the previous leader has run for the hills, the imagery around their promises and delivery is laughable and now another minister has up and scarpered.

In a way, they must be secretly longing for October 14 to be put out of their misery.