Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

“A small but active group”.  This the new catchphrase we can expect to hear more often from the Government as it faces the reality of popularity slipping. When the chips are down and things don’t look good, it’s important to minimise, diffuse, and distract. That’s why in Northland when the PM was confronted by a heckler, she quickly told the crowd it was “just one person”, in fact there were four of them.  Then in Whanganui, when numbers of hecklers and protesters escalated to about 250, we were told it was “a small but active group”. Like we couldn’t see the throng of people there for ourselves. A second protest saw the PM cancel another press conference, nothing to see here. This is clearly a disconcerting time for our beloved PM because she’s had a golden run, is used to fawning photo ops and easy stand ups, and turning out to adoring crowds on university campuses. Not so much now. The wheels are coming off and it’s not pretty. It doesn’t make for good photos; it doesn’t warm the cockles of the heart.  The