KEY POINTS:
If there's one thing Kiwi politics lacks, it's glamour. God knows we are inundated with half-truths, belligerence and ineptitude, but glamour is one aspect we could keenly do with, if not for the purpose of acting as an aesthetic decoy when those testy questions from those pesky journos
arise.
Let's face it, a hottie politico with a wry smile and a cheeky youthfulness holding up a patronising sign to the lions is much more likely to come off less scathed, than say, well, an old goat with an axe to grind (or a rope to hang himself with).
On the eve of what could be Winston Peters' final hurrah, it's quite apt that the man destined to take his place in Tauranga is the rather dashing and glamorous Simon Bridges, whose pretty wife Natalie - a deputy editor at a fashion magazine - is set to steal the show at next week's Fashion Week. It's apt, because dashing and glamorous is what Winnie once was (remember?), but now, of course, his image has become tarnished with a Serious Fraud Office investigation and a donation scandal.
Together Simon and Nat are set to inject a je ne sais quoi in to the impending election. They are the John and Jackie Kennedy of Kiwi politics, but smarter and not philandering.
While Peters' downfall plays out in the media day by day; the Nats would be wise to bring their golden boy out to remind the punters there is a light at the end of a grey tunnel. Camelot has come to Tauranga.
I bumped into Natalie last night looking effortlessly cool at Denise L'Estrange-Corbet's book launch at the SkyCity Grand Hotel, where Paul Holmes, in officially launching the tell-all, managed to bring the subject back to him while outing Denise's private life, in that way only Holmesy can do (what did I tell you - wry smile and cheeky youthfulness works).
He blabbed he wasn't going to take sides now that the fashion designer and her hubby Francis Hooper have split, because they didn't take sides when his marriage to Hinemoa crumbled. In other words, he's known the fashion couple for many years, their marriage is kaput, and he's not going to judge - but he is going to confide in a room full of strangers.
Natalie Bridges happily posed for my snapper Norrie with her colleagues from Simply You magazine, but she - and I found this interesting - was very careful to make sure she didn't appear too fun-loving in the snaps. We can't have that for the spouse of the next MP of Tauranga, she figured. And she's right. Dignified and dainty is the way to go.
And intelligent, too. They have to be one of the smartest couples on the political landscape. The pair met at Oxford University where she was studying English Literature; he was studying law at post-graduate level. They married at a small, ancient chapel on the grounds of Oxford and later set up home in Tauranga bringing with them a glamorous X-factor NZ politics hasn't seen for some time.
Bridges may have had a meteoric rise on our political platform, aided, let's not forget, by Peters' alleged memory loss, but his star is only just beginning to burn bright. Mark my words, the Bridges and their Camelot in Tauranga will be all the talk at election time.
Rachel Glucina
Pictured above: Simon and Natalie Bridges and John Banks at Spy Society Party at the Wharf, Northcote. Photo / Norrie Montgomery