Y’know, I couldn’t decide if John Key’s failure to hammer a nail into a piece of wood was trivia I should ignore, or whether it was an event of some significance.

I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Then I thought about all of the friends I have in life, and it occurred to me that most of the people whose company I enjoyed the most were those who were not only intelligent but capable of doing things.

For example Mick the welder/ boilermaker who worked for years on drilling rigs and now runs his own business employing a hundred people. He’s one of the most interesting guys I know for his views on all and sundry, as well as being a brilliant boilermaker and an excellent businessman.

I can’t say that learning John Key can’t hammer a nail into a piece of wood was a surprise, or that he left it to his wife to hire men to do work around the house. I guess he’s that kind of guy, and I must say it fits in with my impression of Key, a guy who seems to have a narrow perspective on life in general. A kind of MSM fed banking executive who drifted into politics because it was his ambition.

I’d say he’s find it hard to have a conversation with my good friend Mick who is as smart as a whip but spent many years in the grime and dust and heat and flies of outback Australia rather than the carpeted air-conditioned offices of Singapore.

Winston Peters is not anyone I have supported to any great extent in the past, but I’m impressed that he can hammer in a nail, while holding another in his teeth like a tradey.

Anyway, I decided that when you have a leader of a country who can’t hammer a nail into a piece of wood, it really does have some significance. For sure, he wouldn’t be much use to my friend Mick.