Bill Ralston: Sorry Winston, but did you just apologise?

Sorry. Now that's a word I don't think anyone has heard Winston Peters utter before. Yet the reclusive New Zealand First leader did that in an email to his supporters.

Yet what exactly is he sorry for? I guess he is sorry the party lost its seats in Parliament. I'm sure he's sorry he's not a cabinet minister any more. I guarantee he's damn sorry he handled the Owen Glenn saga so badly and largely destroyed his own political reputation.

Peters may be "sorry" but I am not sure he has learned anything from last year's debacle. In the email to his troops he says, using what appears to be a royal "we", "We acknowledge that we made mistakes. In keeping our eyes on the big picture we failed to appreciate the importance of details".

This begs the question, what was the "big picture" for NZ First? Staying in power with Labour? Holding a cabinet portfolio? For most voters it is impossible to sum up what NZ First stood for other than being a vehicle to keep Peters in politics once he had jumped out of Jim Bolger's National Party.

Peters says "we" failed to appreciate the importance of details. It has always been my impression that Peters is obsessed with trivial details, to the exclusion of any greater ideological goal.

A classic example is an interview he did last month with the Herald. He launched into an attack on the paper for a spelling error in that day's edition. When it was pointed out he himself had written a story for the Sky magazine with a spelling error he claimed it was not his mistake and he had evidence in the form of the proof copy of the story. That kind of petty quibbling is hardly "keeping an eye on the big picture" but it is classic Peters.

In the email, Peters says, "We allowed our opponents to create a perception of wrong doing when, in fact, no offences were committed".

What he doesn't say is that it was his evasions, denials, threats and bluster that fogged the issue and resulted in a stalemate. Many questions regarding NZ First's funding, donations and the labyrinth of trusts used by him and his officials remain unanswered.

A NZ First conference is coming up next month and it appears Peters plans staging a comeback at the next election. Party members might wonder where he has been for the past several months. Going into seclusion is hardly the way to rebuild a shattered political party. From the email it seems as if he is targeting the economy, the Supercity, cuts to night classes and ACC physiotherapy and the repeal of the Foreshore and Seabed Act.

In other words, he plans to attack a variety of disparate issues that have nothing in common, other than they are unpopular moves in some quarters.

He is promising a return to what he is good at, populist rabble rousing. The Government is to blame for the international recession. We may be broke as a nation but we should still pay for people to go to macrame classes and get a neck rub. Attempts to get rid of inefficiently competing local body warlords in the country's biggest city must be stopped. And, if all else fails, go Maori bashing because there are enough rednecks to assure him of 5 per cent at the polls.

He may be able to rally some of his troops but it is significant the second most visible man in his party, Ron Mark, has turned his back on Peters and NZ First.

Obviously frustrated with his former leader, Mark says he is "out" of NZ First's activities and won't rule out a return to politics with another party.

Mark, at least, would be a welcome sight back in Parliament because he always seemed the brightest, most able NZ First MP. A man who did keep his eye on the big picture.