Opinion: The funny thing about limiting your options is the realisation that you’ve limited your options.
By ruling out the option of working with Labour, Winston Peters is now searching for new options.
And in quite a remarkable turn he appears to be attempting to plaster over the cracks - rather chasm - that exist in his relationship with David Seymour.
By ruling out Labour, Peters has limited his options to a) working with National or b) some kind of cross-bench arrangement - like staying in opposition, getting thrown some bones from the government and voting on their case policies case by case.
The problem Peters has with the first - and probably his most preferable option - working with National is that with National almost certainly comes with ACT.
Winston Peters hates David Seymour and there is no love lost, Seymour hates Peters right back.
Which is why it was mildly amusing to hear Peters say this yesterday.
"When David Seymour couldn't get his bill through for euthanasia, he came to me and asked for my help," said Peters on Tuesday.
"Because of it, he got it through and wrote me a very, very strong letter expressing his gratitude.
"Now that will probably come as a surprise to you, but it happens to be a fact."
In a case of the revenge of the body snatchers, someone had taken over Winston Peters and was pretending there was something to build on there. That everyone could play happy families. Hmmm….
Thankfully when asked about this by Jo Moir, our political editor, David Seymour brought us swiftly back to the reality of political animosity, saying it was nothing special and that he thanked all MPs who voted on the bill.
Ohhh ouch… Winston Peters won’t like that one bit. Not only did he send the special letter to everyone, but he also called Peters 'forgetful' and Peters does not easily forgive jibes related to his age.
But that wasn’t stopping Seymour - he doubled, then trebled down saying he's hard to work with for anyone.
David Seymour wouldn’t go so far as to rule out working with Winston Peters.
But he just made any chance of it infinitesimally slimmer and if that does wind up being our governing reality after 2023.
Say a little prayer for us all but save your biggest for poor old Christopher Luxon.
It’ll be his job to solve that perilous Rubix cube of politics.
