The reaction of the New Zealand government to a speech given by our cricket-tragic ex-prime minister, John Howard to the New Zealand National Party proved once and for all that it might be a sleepy little country but there is usually someone left awake to update scores on the rugby channel.

John Howard’s mistake was to describe the election result that saw the majority of votes go to the Nationals but government going to a Labor/New Zealand First coalition as ‘disappointing, unjust and unfair.’