Barry Soper: Let's hope David Seymour's Dancing with the Stars appearance isn't the new-look Act

If publicity is truly the oxygen of politics Act's leader David Seymour shouldn't have been on life support, but that's what to most of us he's been on, ever since his first outing on Dancing with the Stars in April.

Last week there was a flicker of improvement when he strutted out the Viennese Waltz, giving hope the blip on the flat line had finally found its rhythm. Fat chance, on his Sunday night birthday outing, yes it was his 35th birthday, he was like a constipated peacock, blinking madly with a strained face, puffing his chest out, marching forward with awkward tap dance steps with his arms inexplicably bent in a circle to emphasise his torso.

Clearly he was hoping to give the impression that he was a powerful bullfighter with the Paso Doble, rather than looking like he was in dire need of a laxative.

The laxative came in the form of the judges' outpouring of bile about his performance while he looked incredibly hurt as they battered him with the lowest score of the competition so far.

At least he can take some heart, former Act leader Rodney Hide still has the lowest ever score, getting three ones because they weren't allowed to give anyone nothing. That was the night he stomped around the floor a dozen years ago doing the Cha-cha which left his partner gaga, recovering after being spear tackled, thrown over his broad shoulders and landing heavily on the floor.

Not unlike the current Act leader, Hide looked and sounded genuinely upset, not so much for his performance but for the damage he may have caused his dance teacher.

You'd think the party would have learned - since that outing it's been downhill with Act never again cracking the five per cent threshold. Seymour's obviously been getting more votes for his walks around the dance floor every week than he managed to scrape together at election time.

Last night though the votes - and with a great deal of relief for those us who actually like dancing - ran out.

To see him in the final next week would have been about as unfair as Winston Peters was to the sign language man who has to interpret his run together words at his post-Cabinet news conferences. The poor bloke's arms were almost as out of control as Seymour's legs when Peters used Latin to describe Simon Bridges.

At least it won't be too long before the Act brand is no longer tainted by the Paso Doble though. The current leader of the one-man band has been putting a lot of work into a re-branding exercise (obviously more than he's been putting into his dance steps) but we can only hope that his appearance on Dancing with the Stars isn't part of the new-look Act.