The wrong trousers

In the battle of the suits, Luxon needs a new stylist and Auckland could do with a splash of colour.

- MICHELE HEWITSON

There is nothing so soul-sapping as pondering a political poll. You wonder who does ponder them. Presumably that chap in a suit who is slightly ahead of that other chap in a suit in the popularity stakes. Until the next poll in which, quite possibly, that other chap in a suit sprints ahead of that other chap in a suit by a breathtaking 0.1%, or some similarly thrilling margin. A snail race would be more exciting.

We have five more months of polls to come, of cheering on our favourite snail, or sneering at our least-preferred snail, until we slowly slime across the line that is election day. The very thought is enough to make one lose the will to live, let alone vote.

Currently, the Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, is the preferred prime minister in the snail race, ahead of the Leader of the Opposition, Christopher Luxon.

If we must ponder the polls feel free to have a lie-down here - Hipkins' personal popularity as prime minister is up 3.8 percentage points to 23.4%, Luxon is down 2.4 points to 16.4%, his lowest point thus far, according to Newshub's latest poll.

If you had to choose who to vote for based on the suits, Luxon would be the loser.

And the suit might account for his latest preferred PM poll position. He really should have been advised not to post a picture of himself posing with Richie McCaw as they made their comedic way to the coronation in their morning suits. What happened to Luxon's trousers? He looked like a very short tramp who had robbed a very tall tramp of his pants on the way to the abbey. Or that he had suffered an unfortunate incident with his own trousers and had to ask McCaw if he happened to have a spare pair about his person.