Flip-flops can be smart

Readers of a certain age will recall the climactic fourth wedding in Four Weddings and a Funeral, during which a groom played by Hugh Grant (the go-to destination for lifestyle writers desperate to use the word ‘foppish’) is supposed to say ‘I do’ but instead says ‘I don’t’.

As viewers, we were encouraged to put aside thoughts of the jilted bride and the wilted cake, and instead applaud Grant’s character for this act of to-thine-own-self-be-truthing. It’s been some time since I’ve seen Four Weddings, but I don’t recall a subsequent scene where cockney newspaper sellers yelled ‘‘Flip-Flop Fop!’’ and ‘‘Groom Makes Massive Hugh-Turn!’’ in the high street.

Alas for our political leaders, having a bit of a rethink is substantially less likely to leave onlookers delivering a standing ovation, or asking ‘‘Is it still raining? I hadn’t noticed’’. And so, by way of seamless segue, to everyone’s favourite uncle Phil Mauger who, it seems, is being both roundly and squarely chastised for changing his mind and agreeing to fund street improvements near Te Kaha.

The move has certainly put the cat among the kererū . One of the mayor’s former cheerleaders has laid down his pompoms, calling it ‘‘a shaky, unflattering start to Mauger’s leadership’’ in which the mayor ‘‘finds himself in the embarrassing position of disembowelling his initial objections’’.

And if you’ve ever disembowelled your own objections, you’ll know just how painful (if not downright confusing) that procedure can be.

Meanwhile, local business owners opposed to more peoplefriendly streets are pictured grimfaced, arms-folded and – with no apparent sense of irony – literally standing in the middle of a road where *cough* cars are supposed to be. ‘‘Hands off our streets’’ is their message to the mayor and others (presumably to go alongside their earlier message of ‘‘Hand us the $683 million stadium that’ll pour thousands of people out onto those footpaths, will you, and be quick about it’’).

And lo, no less an august organ than this very publication has described Mauger’s reconsideration as a ‘backtrack’, and not in the manner of DOC describing an alternative route to one of its huts. More in the sense of ‘‘well, you mucked that one up, didn’t you?’’ Which I’m not sure is entirely fair.

What is fair to say is that, to date, Mayor Phil may not have demonstrated the Hugh Grant-ian levels of effortless cool that enable one to pull off the swift and consequence-free reversal. I imagine, for example, that throughout the corridors of the council building can be found trails of hair tufts pulled out in frustration by his prematurely balding PR team (‘ No! Phil!Nott he free RAT-tests!’).

And am I the only one hanging out for the Home Improvements style Christchurch City Council Christmas Special in which our mayor says ‘‘Leave the Christmas lights to me, team!’’, and as the credits roll is seen suspended bungy-style by a length of electrical cable from the Bridge of Remembrance?

Nonetheless, when it comes to examining our leaders’ actions I find myself drawn to the learned words of that famous Google search result John Maynard Keynes, who (apparently) said ‘‘When the facts change, I change my mind’’.

And to prove it, let me tell you that Christopher Luxon has done something right. And no, it wasn’t that nice photo-op with the flowers outside the Sandringham dairy. It was announcing that National had reconsidered and wouldn’t be scrapping the 39% top tax rate.

Now if you want, there are all sorts of reasons to be cynical about this.

Foremost is that when you’re handing rich folk a tax break big enough to buy a pretty decent near new car, while handing poorer folk a tax break small enough to fill said car’s petrol tank a few times over, you’re also handing Labour a stick to hit you with at the next election.

And yes, you could call it a U-turn, a flip-flop or a backtrack. But I won’t be. Because whether National read the economy or just read the room, this was the right thing to do.

(On the other hand if you would like a list of the wrong things Christopher Luxon is doing, please write to me care of The Press, enclosing a stamped, self-addressed A3 envelope.)

And as for making the streets around Te Kaha fit for purpose, I suppose time will tell whether the mayor made a good call there.

But having a rethink about something shouldn’t in itself be a cause for complaint.

Unless you’re the bride in the fourth wedding in Four Weddings and a Funeral, of course, though as I recall she ended up bagging an officer in the Grenadier Guards, which can’t be all bad.

Now can someone go get the Christmas lights before Phil gets his hands on them.