Heather du Plessis-Allan: Winston's back in Government, isn't he?

I don’t quite know how we’re back here, but we are- Winston's back in Government, isn’t he?

I think all the signs now point to the fact that National can’t do it without him.

The Herald’s Poll of Polls says National and ACT have a 40 percent chance of forming Government alone. With Winston, it’s a 99.7 percent chance.

The big donors are backing him, he’s pulling in more money right now than in any other election beforehand- and it’s coming from the big end of town.

He wasn’t in the debate last night, but Paddy Gower dedicated an entire section to talking about him. And out of the parties on the right, NZ First is the only one going up in the polls.

National looks like it might actually have peaked already. The party hit its highest point a couple of weeks ago and it’s been falling slightly in the polls since then.

ACT is kind of hard to judge, but it’s either stable or falling slightly- it’s certainly not climbing.

NZ First? That one is going up.

I think those donations are significant, by the way. The rank group, which is connected to Graham Hart, the richest man in New Zealand, gave Winston Peters $100,000.

And they did that more than two weeks before donating to ACT and National.

Winston’s getting money from the same rich-listers donating to ACT and National. These guys know how to sniff the breeze, that’s why they’re wealthy- because they read things before they happen.

And they’re backing Winnie.

I'm baffled.

This is the guy who earned the wrath of centre-right voters only 6 years ago for choosing Jacinda when Bill English had earned more vote.

And yet, here we are- there are centre-right voters who are backing him, who are trusting him to not make them angry again.

Watch what’s about to happen. We're gonna talk a lot about Winston between now and election night, because he’s relevant again.

NZ First was 6 percent in the One News/Verian poll last night, so book them in for a possible 7 or 8 on election night. Because the more we talk about them, the more they climb.

And if these trends continue, you ain’t getting a change of Government without Uncle Winston in there.

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