By AUDREY YOUNG
Bill English was among friendly faces yesterday as he paid an electorate visit to the bleak little southern town of Nightcaps.
He could probably be more sure of a warm reception there than from his own National colleagues in Wellington.
The youthful charms of the 38-year-old finance spokesman are not appreciated by many colleagues, who believe he has been too slow in pledging support for party leader Jenny Shipley, thus adding fuel to leadership speculation.
Mr English himself is said by friends to feel hard-done-by - virtually having had a bull's-eye target put on his forehead for doing nothing but his job.
His unstated but clear ambitions have caused resentment in a caucus already rife with jealousies and jostling over a reshuffle and likely deputy leadership contest.
Mr English is being lobbied by some newer colleagues to stand as deputy if Wyatt Creech goes. It is an option he would not rule out, he told the Weekend Herald yesterday - but that is an expected position, as has decided to quell leadership talk for now.
And, as one MP said, it would be easier to list the number of colleagues who have not tested the waters for their chances at deputy.
They include Lockwood Smith, John Carter, Gerry Brownlee, Wayne Mapp and even first-termer Richard Worth.
Bids for power are rarely seemly exercises.
National MP Maurice Williamson declared Mr English to have neither the "excitement, charisma, humour, personality nor talent" for leadership.
And less flattering assessments are common fare in the private conversations of parliamentary Christmas parties.
"Too immature" and "making no dent on Michael Cullen" are common comments.
The kindest thing said about him is that he is not ready for leadership.
Mr English tries to be sanguine. "It's only two years to the next election and I don't intend to divert my energies into that sort of politics ... "
But he returns the Williamson attack and uses it to promote his own centrism.
"There is a small part of the business world which is a bit nostalgic for the late '80s and early '90s and is looking for politicians who sound like the heroes of that time, being Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson.
"Comments of the sort that Maurice makes really come from that way of looking at the world."
If colleagues agree, they will not say so. Such are the sensitivities now that complimenting Mr English is tantamount to undermining Mrs Shipley.
But some are willing to bat for Mr English, and bat hard.
Act leader Richard Prebble is loath to get into a Shipley vs English debate. But he is willing to dispute Mr Williamson's view in the context of Mr English versus Finance Minister Michael Cullen.
"Cullen's problem is that he doesn't create any empathy with any audience nor can he in any way create the impression he is on the same wavelength as the ordinary New Zealander," Mr Prebble said yesterday. "Bill English does that effortlessly. He comes across as an ordinary Kiwi joker and family man. He's likeable. These are all highly desirable characteristics in politics."
And Mr Prebble says voter's don't see lack of charisma as a disadvantage.
"The electorate might occasionally flirt with charisma, but they go off it. One politician who has recently been most successful is Jim Bolger, and Bill English comes right out of the Jim Bolger-Keith Holyoake National Party school of politicians."
Mr English is of Southland farming stock. He was schooled at St Pat's College, Silverstream, and became a Treasury analyst before being elected in 1990.
Prejudices of the city are evident in the contrasts often drawn between his rural drawl and his sharp intellect.
He still has a farm at Dipton in his Clutha-Southland electorate. His general practitioner wife, Mary, is of Samoan and Italian descent and they have six children.
Born in 1961, he is one of the Star Wars-Abba generation. He is the perfect candidate on paper to succeed Mrs Shipley and in reality the only serious contender.
But that contest won't be held unless National has a period of sustained poor polling that suggests Mrs Shipley could not win in 2002. Mr English will undoubtedly use the time in between to polish his act.
He is pitted against one of Parliament's cleverest in Dr Cullen, who had a long apprenticeship through the '90s as finance spokesman.
Mr English is by far National's ablest match for Dr Cullen, but even so is beaten regularly in the House.
He won't accept the view that he has failed to match Dr Cullen.
"I've done quite well," he says. "The issue for any Minister of Finance is their credibility and Dr Cullen's credibility has dropped a lot since the election.
"Opposition is very rarely about king- hits and big scandals. That happens occasionally.
"But Dr Cullen has shown that under sustained pressure of criticism, he alienates himself from people he should be working with, and I've been part of that pressure."
Mr English eventually this week pledged his support for Mrs Shipley, prodded by stories highlighting the fact he would not.
But colleagues say he was too slow to offer the pledge. If that was meant to stem speculation, it won't work.
The party will face the reshuffle and the deputy leadership question in the New Year.
The problem Mrs Shipley faces is a talented and ambitious 1996 intake - Gerry Brownlee, Wayne Mapp, Belinda Vernon, Gavan Herlihy, Bob Simcock - who want promotion to National's First XV, from whose ranks cabinets are drawn.
Not only are they eyeing the spots of older colleagues such as Lockwood Smith, Max Bradford and John Luxton, they're also questioning the credentials of the Brat Pack - Mr English, Roger Sowry, Nick Smith and Tony Ryall. And added to the mix is also a talented and ambitious 1999 intake - Simon Power, Katherine Rich, Richard Worth and Lynda Scott - who are impatient for rewards.
The season of goodwill may bypass National this year.
Bill English falling from favour
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