Good riddance to John Banks

Yesterday John Banks accepted the inevitable and announced that he would resign from Parliament. Good. His continued presence there debased the House and brought it into public contempt, and I am glad to see the back of him.

And as a result, the government has been stripped of its legislative majority and its policy programme - especially employment relations "reform" - is now in tatters. Now that Banks has gone, John Key says that the government would not have relied on his vote to pass legislation anyway. In case anyone believes that, remember that on Thursday Key was saying that Banks could stay in Parliament as he hadn't been convicted - a line echoed by Gerry Brownlee, and on Friday Key was publicly trying to undermine the verdict and saying that they hadn't considered whether they'd accept Banks' support. So I think we can take Key's sudden support for what actually happened with a grain of salt.