John Armstrong: Great speech - pity about the delivery

It was several minutes of abject failure punctuated by a few moments of utter triumph - but how sweet that triumph must have been for National.

Don Brash's speech on the first day of Parliament had long loomed as a major test. But National's post-mortem on his reply to the Prime Minister's formal statement of her Government's plans should take heart from what went right rather than dwell on what went wrong.

Though Dr Brash appeared to have been mowed down by Labour's version of the St Valentine's Day Massacre, he effectively carried the day. For the first time in his short parliamentary career, Dr Brash really took the fight to the Prime Minister, questioning her integrity after Labour's cynical use of the public purse to top up its election campaign funding.

He noted she had put her signature to Labour's pledge card, whose production and distribution the taxpayer funded to the tune of nearly $450,000. Observing that Helen Clark had once proudly stressed she was accountable for the card, he challenged her to be as good as her word and pay the money back and apologise.

The smirk on the Prime Minister's face remained fixed, but Labour's relentless barracking of Dr Brash suddenly came to an abrupt halt, if only momentarily.

And it was the attack on Helen Clark that made last night's television news bulletins, giving National a victory outside the House even though Labour understandably believes it otherwise walloped Dr Brash inside.

Crucially for National, Dr Brash has confronted his reluctance to recognise Parliament as a vital platform into the country's living rooms.

Yesterday witnessed the first outing of the new, angry Brash - jabbing his fingers on his benchtop for effect.

Labour's response was to mock him more. As Pete Hodgson noted, Dr Brash does not do angry very well.

Dr Brash did struggle to match the anger levels in what was the best parliamentary speech he has written or had written for him.

On paper, it was an absolute cracker. Unfortunately, no one in the House could hear much of it.

Labour MPs indulged in a barrage of interjections to drown him out. They succeeded in fazing him. He ploughed on as if it was a race to finish first. His delivery became mechanical, the passion fizzled and he lost his timing on many punchlines.

Last year, colleagues would have come to his rescue, raising points of order and demanding the Speaker silence those making the noise.

But doing that would have made it look like he couldn't look after himself. Dr Brash and his colleagues seemed to have decided he was on his own. It was sink or swim time.

He should have confronted his tormentors by pausing and glaring at Margaret Wilson to bring the House to order. But Dr Brash still has difficulty thinking on his feet.

Winston Peters summed things up when he spoke following Dr Brash.

"It is one thing to fumble your way through a staged, captive audience like at a Rotary Club meeting. It is quite something else to turn up here and front up and perform."

Which, of course, Mr Peters proceeded to do with consummate ease before joking that while it might be the Chinese Year of the Dog, for National, it was the Year of the Lame Duck.

That was harsh judgment. In Parliament, Dr Brash is now not so much swimming like a duck as dog-paddling.

It isn't pretty, but on yesterday's evidence, he might start getting somewhere.