David Slack

The National party began the year by tackling a story about expenses as badly as possible and managed to turn a minor procedure into a protracted disembowelling without anaesthetic. They ended the year by putting on their best panto voices and asking: ‘‘WHERE IS THE PRIME MINISTER, WE CAN’T SEE HER ANYWHERE, CAN’T SHE DO HER JOB???’’ Meanwhile, the prime minister was standing next to the South Korean president in full view of the nation.