COMMENT:

So it's a no from Alfred Ngaro. Which in many respects is a shame if you're a fan of more options under MMP, which I am. If you're going to have a scheme, it may as well work as well as it can, or was designed to.

As we have said many times, MMP, as it sits, has been a disaster. No small party that has ever been in government in the 20-plus years of this system has prospered. If New Zealand First makes it out of this coalition having grown it will be a record in itself, because every minor player in this position before it hasn't.

The Māori Party, the Alliance, UnitedFuture, Alamein Kopu, Mana ... gone. All swallowed up, suppressed, or crushed by the bigger players.

The one option that hasn't been tested for years (and you could argue never really got a proper chance to shine) is a Christian party. The idea is as tantalising and full of potential as it ever has been. It just needs the right ingredients. And one of those ingredients is a leader and, under this system, potentially, a leg up.

Ngaro's decision is timely because it wouldn't have taken much more of what we saw the other day for quite a few of us to start questioning just how is it this bloke is wandering off to another party, but he is being allowed to espouse his theories on that party from inside another party. For many, last week's views on abortion will have been the first time we have actually heard the bloke say anything.

And it sort of looked like a mini launch of the Ngaro bandwagon surrounded by National Party MPs. Nothing wrong with a potential deal, or understanding, between friends and allies. But we would not have to have been much further down the track before it all looked a bit gerrymandered.

So with Ngaro deciding he is staying with National, what about the Christian vote?

And in that is the shame because, one, a successful Christian party would have been good news for National, given they're desperate for help. Two, it would've bolstered the MMP stocks, which look pathetic. And three, it has given new life to the Tamaki party.

Or has it?

The answer to that question is no. In fact, the Tamakis run the very real risk of yet again doing a Colin Craig, or a Graham Capill, and wrecking the Christians' chances of ever seeing their sort of political view represented at the highest levels of influence.

The key to any party's or movement's success is firstly the concept. Secondly, some sort of name recognition. Thirdly, a structure. And fourthly, credibility.

On paper the Tamakis have three of the four. The credibility bit is the part that will see them fail to fire, even if they don't face the competition of Ngaro.

And that is the let down for potential fans. Under many circumstances Ngaro's move not to run would have, should have, been Mana from heaven, so to speak.

But even with that impediment out of the way, a train that was never leaving the station is still a train going nowhere.

So no Green Conservatives, no Christians - and 90 per cent of current support, according to the polls, for Labour and National. It's hardly an MMP utopia, is it?