last year? He has been active with his speeches and positions, and has been a very capable minister, but has not shown himself to be a shrewd political operator. If he's on a winning ticket there needs to be some people backing him who can make sure this shite wouldn't happen when fronting up for NZ overseas. Or he just needs a better team, and perhaps not have himself as the leader of it. I'd guess that the answer to that is to say that I haven't seen him 'maneuvering'. He just has a lot of noisy supporters -- many of them here. In fact I'd guess that if he was looking at anything then it'd have been in Feb, or after the next election if there was a loss. The 'maneuvering' seems to have largely been from the Shearer/Robertson et al camp with their assorted minions. They are also the ONLY ones I have seen pushing media. The biggest problem that I think that Cunliffe has is that he has been a bit lazy in not anticipating that this kind of move would be made against him. To be fair, I would not say lazy but he was a bit too trusting of the process. And had not really anticipated the underhanded moves. My message to DC is -- from now on, be constantly vigilant, don't be surprised by the worst and be prepared for the ugliest, and keep smiling. When there is Snowfall in Hades is the answer