PM lets mongrel off leash in leaders debate

Helen Clark (left) and Don Brash during last evening's debate on TV One. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

It took only a few minutes for Helen Clark to decide she had been set up with a "Tory crowd" in last night's TV One debate with Don Brash. And that rattled her.

It instantly erased her practised pleasantness and brought out the mongrel as she knocked and mocked and scrapped her way through the first session on tax policy.

She is a more nimble debater and easily landed more hits and one-liners than Dr Brash. In parts of the debate, it became almost a case of duelling bribes when the leaders argued about whose policies were the more responsible.

"My bribe is smaller than yours," Helen Clark appeared to be suggesting over her tax relief package - and Dr Brash over his student loan relief policy.

Dr Brash found his own equaliser for the frequently asked question on perceived flip-flops: instead of arguing about it, as he usually does, he pointed out that Helen Clark has u-turns too - on Treaty of Waitangi policy, school closures and yesterday's childcare change.

By the third segment, on foreign policy, Helen Clark was in her element and won that section hands down.

She looked uncomfortable when the speeding motorcade was mentioned but finally expressed her "sympathy" for the police officers involved.

Dr Brash was at his strongest and the Prime Minister at her weakest in the segment on the Treaty of Waitangi.

Dr Brash's best and worst was in the same sentence. Prompted, he paid a compliment to Helen Clark having been a strong Prime Minister, something an experienced politician would never do. But it also illustrated the "honest Don" side to him that National hopes will appeal.

But Dr Brash's voice has a slightly pleading quality to it when he is trying to make himself heard over her - and the arm-waving doesn't help. His habit of repeating himself, "No no no no no," like Jim in TV's The Vicar of Dibley, also gives an impression of slight weakness. Better to say it once and say it strongly.