One step forward, two steps back: that sums up the state of Labour right now.
Just when the party had started to haul back National's previous massive lead in the polls, up popped David Benson-Pope, bringing the brief recovery to an abrupt halt.
His wretched handling of the
Madeleine Setchell affair produced another truckload of negative headlines before his sacking.
Labour cannot afford weeks like this - something stressed by the Prime Minister when she lectured ministers and the wider caucus after her return from overseas.
Her message was that while John Key's "honeymoon" continued, Labour had started setting the political agenda again and was gaining momentum - and no one should get in the way of that.
Mr Benson-Pope had done just that, but her warning was not directed solely at him.
Labour may now be rid of an unpopular minister, but there is precious other little upside for the party in his dismissal. Many voters will view his going as not before time, while others will simply see it as evidence the Government is terminal.
That makes it all the harder for Labour to get voters to switch on to its more positive messages on things like KiwiSaver and subsidised GPs' visits.
The bottom line is Labour no longer has any margin for self-created error if it is to have any chance of turning around the polls beforegoing into election year.
Even though fate seemed to have doomed Mr Benson-Pope to issue what was his third invitation in little more than two years to the PM to sack him, he was the classic example of what happens to Governments in their third term.
Ministers will feel for him, but his going will have done Labour some good if they treat it as a wake-up call. If they don't, the PM will be forced to reshuffle sooner rather than later.
