Mike Hosking: Rules are rules, Gareth Morgan

The word is that the Opportunities Party is off to court today to try and get itself on this Friday's multi-party leaders debate on TVNZ 1.

Top is seeking, we are told, a judicial review.

There has been much argy bargy behind the scenes of this debate. Hence we have rules and the rules are simple and clear.

You either have to be in Parliament or you have to be at 3 per cent in the Colmar Brunton poll - as things stand, Top meets neither of those criteria.

There is of course the chance that may change tomorrow with the new poll, but it looks increasingly unlikely given Top is trending down, not up.

And might I say from my own point of view, which doesn't actually count for anything, but I would like to see or have seen Gareth Morgan front up on that debate.

Why? Because he's interesting.

Because if he'd hit 3 per cent he would have been looking to get momentum from the debate to push towards 5 per cent, which I have argued all along is an extremely big ask for anyone.

In fact it's never been done.

A new party setting up and cracking 5 per cent has not been achieved in 20 years of MMP and Gareth sadly isn't going to change that.

But for a fleeting moment there, a couple of weeks ago, he peaked in the Colmar poll at 2.2 and if he'd made 2.5 it might have been rounded up to the magic 3.

But currently it's 1and 1is not even close.

So how a judicial review is going to tackle all of that, of course, is up to the judge.

But the simple premise is beyond the rules, if we go round bending rules, every man and his dog from every wacky party going is going to want to part of the action and the whole things becomes a farce.

And apart from anything else, this all looks a bit desperate doesn't it?

It all looks a bit unseemly. I mean argue your point, hit the trail, put up your billboards, produce your policies and see what the people think.

That's how the game is played and this time for Gareth and his cohorts, it hasn't worked out all that well.

That is life.

And a bit of good grace is required as opposed to lawyers.

So let's see how it all unfolds, maybe what we are hearing is nothing more than the rattling of a cage or two.

But, if you subscribe to the simple premise that rules are rules, then a place in the House or a 3 per cent marker in the Colmar Brunton poll isn't that hard to comprehend is it?