This is akin to, having laid a lethal minefield that has subsequently cut off at the knees a huge cohort of would-be homeowners, the bluecoats now pretend to be the heroic cavalry galloping to the rescue with wagon-loads of prosthetic limbs. The cynicism of this on-going con job is gob-smacking.
But a few cracks in the edifice are opening up. Not the least being Stephen Joyce's accusations - supported by Bill English - about Labour having a big hole in its budget projections.
There was indeed a massive hole, except that its location turned out to be in Joyce's own head.
Meanwhile, Bill English, you may recall, is the man who's been adding and subtracting the figures for so long he no longer knows the difference between a balance sheet and an economy.
National's been in office for nine years and New Zealand now has among the worst - if not THE worst - figures in the OECD countries for homelessness, domestic and child violence, child poverty, youth suicide, youth unemployment, imprisonment rates, house unaffordability, income inequality, river and waterway pollution, and God knows what else.
We're champions in all the negative statistics, yet Bill blithely spouts on about how well the economy's supposedly doing. Double Dipton Bill still hasn't figured out that the true economy is all about quality of life as opposed to GDP stats.
The lever that's helping prise open these cracks even more is an Opposition-in-waiting that's finally offering a credible alternative. Timing, as they say, is everything, and for Labour the J-Bomb has serendipitously delivered a big bang in the nick of time.
As they also say, a picture tells a thousand words, and it's almost comical to see the contrast between the now energised Labour Party meets and photo-ops, and those of the incumbents.
Current polls say the present bunch could finally be lunch. The miracle is that they've managed to endure as long as they have, but there's no under-estimating the gullibility of a New Zealand public brainwashed- along with so many others - by a pap-fuelled celebrity culture.
For a while, John Key - Wall Street's Man-In-New Zealand - was the celebrity, and enough of a voting majority bought it until even he could see the jig was up and promptly bailed.
(Don't be surprised any time now to see him turn up on the board of Merrill Lynch/Bank of America, clutching his title between his teeth like a faithful retriever.)
It's almost irrelevant who might comprise a replacement Government - the reality is that, a): the Blues no longer deserve to be there, if indeed they ever did; and, b) whomsoever replaces them certainly can't do any worse - the inclusion of a Brian Tamaki Blackshirts Party possibly excepted.
On every major social and environmental issue for the last nine years, National's displayed a strategy of not only spectacular benign neglect, but pro-active duck and cover, and/or obfuscation with extreme prejudice.
It's time they were shopped.
