Colin Craig saga: Sex scandal without the sex

With his board now gone, Colin Craig appears hell bent on resurrecting himself a new party. Photo / Rick Reed

Colin Craig's press conference this week with wife Helen was a train wreck. I wanted desperately to look away but such was the carnage I was held rigidly transfixed.

The money shot was Craig declaring: "In hindsight, on some occasions our conduct was inappropriate and we have acknowledged that so that we can both move on."

Who were the "we" and "our" here? Was that he and former press secretary Rachel MacGregor? Or was it the Royal "We"?

The first recorded use of the Royal "We" was King Henry II in 1169. He used "We" meaning "God and I ... "

I don't think that's what Craig meant but I am not sure. I have no idea what he was trying to say. Or what he was trying to do.

He held his press conference to tell the world that, on thinking about it, "my/our" conduct was "inappropriate", now and again, in a way I won't disclose but "I/we" have acknowledged it.

It appeared a full-blown sex scandal but without the sex. Only in New Zealand, and only with Colin Craig, is that possible.

Is it news? Should we care? You bet.

Craig came within a whisker of making it to Parliament, holding the balance of power and dictating a government.

He did not go through the normal gruelling process of convincing a political party to back him. Instead, he started his own.

And threw millions at it.

And put himself number one.

Not for him the usual political vetting process.

That process is not perfect but it's something.

I suspect Craig may well have achieved some considerable power had MacGregor not resigned two days out from last year's election declaring him "a very manipulative man". I am sure that comment from a young woman, who was working closely with him, and supporting him, caused many conservative voters to rethink their vote.

And then this week's press conference.

Now his own party is abandoning him. The majority of his board has resigned.

The very party that he started and funded has left him.

But that hasn't dented Craig's ambition.

With his board now gone, he appears hell bent on resurrecting himself a new party.

It's not Craig's inappropriate behaviour, whatever it was, that's the problem.

It's everything else.

A man that desperate to have a party that will have him, and give him power, is a man who should never have it.

It's news all right. And we should care.