Mike Williams: Target on Gayford's forehead because he's an asset

Mike Williams

I was flattered to hear my previous week's musings in Hawke's Bay Today cited the very next day in a television debate by one Alfred Ngaro, an obscure National List MP who makes a habit of running in my home electorate of Te Atatu and coming second.

The thought of Alfred investing the time necessary to find me somewhere on the internet on a sunny Saturday Auckland afternoon to catch up with my weekly ramblings is worth a chuckle and underlines the horrid fate that awaits opposition back-benchers.

You could, nevertheless, argue that Alfie's making better use of his time than the trio of National MPs who took up sewer-pond observation in Waipukurau a couple of months ago.

It was the Labour-led Government's six-month anniversary last week and the somewhat grudging opinion of most of the established political commentators was that it had done rather well, having won an unexpected victory in the poll in September last year.

It was hard for the media to find anything resembling a major stumble by the Ardern Government, beyond one inebriated hoon losing it at the Labour Party's summer camp and one minister's guest misinforming her boss about a meeting and resigning her job.

Given the unexpected outcome and the complexity of a coalition government of Labour and New Zealand First dependent on the Green Party for confidence and supply, this first six months can only be classed as a success.

Just as I was flattered at the thought of a National MP wasting a sunny day to run down my musings, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern should be flattered that the right-wing rumour mill has targeted her partner, Clarke Gayford.

I became aware of nasty rumours about Clarke a few weeks ago when a very wealthy gentleman I approached for a donation to the Howard League prisoner literacy programme told me about some allegations as if they were fact.

I pointed out that if what he'd just told me were true, then Clarke would have found overseas travel not possible, which he patently had not as he had been pictured in London in the presence of the Queen.

Rumour-mongering has a long history and tends to become a weapon of desperation in competitive situations when a party or a company is losing support and grasps at straws in order to discredit its successful rival.

In the United States in 1934, the Chesterfield tobacco company was the target of a rumour that a worker with leprosy had been discovered in the company's cigarette factory in Richmond, Virginia.

This was a completely unfounded attack on a market leader but it was believed by enough smokers to impact heavily on the sales of several brands of cigarettes produced by the Chesterfield company.

Inventing "facts" and scenarios happens across the political spectrum and the advent of social media has meant that rumours, these days, travel fast.

I recall that when Sir John Key unexpectedly announced his intention to resign as Prime Minister and leave New Zealand politics, a denizen of the Wellington swamp on the phone to me speculated that this surprise was connected with the pregnancy of someone in Key's prime ministerial entourage.

I was able to inform this person that given the fact Key had once rather tactlessly announced he had had a vasectomy what had been observed could only be a coincidence and not a cause.

During my long stint as Labour Party president there were repeated rumours about Helen Clark and her husband, Peter Davis.

I'd known this couple for years and had many giggles at what I heard and these rumours seemed to fade away after they'd reached a fever pitch of absurdity when I was told by a prominent broadcaster that Peter had been arrested attempting to depart the US.

Clarke Gayford is a particular target because he is an asset both to the Prime Minister and the Labour-led Government.

Just last week a particularly nasty columnist masquerading as a political commentator took issue with the fact that his forename was spelt with an apparently superfluous "e" at the end.

The fact that new-born infants do not generally influence how their names are spelt seems to have eluded this writer.

The reality is that Clarke Gayford is a significant asset and does not conform to the pattern of PMs' spouses.

The Labour Party has in recent years had problems picking up support from self-employed and small business-owning males.

This electoral group is quite large and is generally characterised as "The Henderson Panel Beater".

The fact the PM's partner and father of her baby is a "bloke" who excels at that most blokish of pursuits, fishing, makes him both an asset and a target.

• Mike Williams grew up in Hawke's Bay. He is CEO of the NZ Howard League and a former Labour Party president. All opinions are his and not those of Hawke's Bay Today.