Editorial: Folly rules in farce of politics

The politically sceptical looking for the story behind the story will be doing well to beat the twin act of Aaron Gilmore and Peter Dunne, the two most recent of our MPs to fall from grace.

Look no further. This is the real farce.

In the case of Mr Gilmore, it may be that there never was any grace to fall from, such was the short period of time in which he managed to perform the double - inflating the ego and puncturing it in pretty much the same breath.

Mr Dunne, on the other, had been closing the gap on the record for the longest term in Parliament, when he absolutely smashed the record for the most questionable emails.

Whatever other views may abound, Beehive watchers have witnessed two of the silliest episodes in our political history, which must now have us all wondering about the MMP structure we've had in our Parliament for the past 17 years (Is it that long?).

It is likely that without MMP, we would never have heard of Aaron Gilmore, and probable that Peter Dunne would not have been Minister of Revenue.

Such quirks we use to challenge the sanity of MMP, but the reality is that the problem seems to be constantly with the character that finds a seat in Parliament, not the method that elected him/her.

There is a mercy in the equation, for even without general election turnover, the attrition rate at the big house between Bowen and Molesworth in the capital does at times seem to be aligning itself with that applying in so many other industries.

The pity is that the actual jobs don't go at the same rate.