National leader John Key is either playing fast and loose in an attempt to wrong-foot Labour, or he thinks us voters are idiots. How else can we explain his State of the Nation speech, which merely said that the state of the nation can be put down to youth crime and violence?

His advisors might have thought that coming out with a virtually policy-free speech in advance of the next day’s State of the Nation diatribe from Helen Clark would leave him able to come out with some substance the day after hers. She’ll say New Zealand is paradise. He could have told us why the nation is run by (and for) parasites – and how he would eradicate them.

Clark might say (and we paraphrase): “Why make the dire situation that Labour has created for New Zealanders any worse by electing an untried and untested National team?”

The day before, Key could have said: “When Helen Clark was elected nine years ago, she was also untried and untested, and just look at the state she’s got us into.”

It was an opportunity thrown away.

If Key thinks that the country’s troubles can be solved by a discredited boot-camp solution to youth delinquency (the same old failed harsh punishments on kids, and therapy for their parents) he has made a major strategic mistake.

Key talks about supervision. But we were hoping for a super vision.

Every thinking person in this country was expecting an alternative and wide-ranging strategy from John Key. Instead, we got a single-issue knee-jerk reaction that some may think was a cowardly avoidance of the real issues and a cynical manipulation of the publicity process.

Unless he gets a grip and starts issuing some serious policies soon, we’re probably in for another three years of socialist paralysis.

Key gives the impression that he believes his new face is quite enough to win, and that Oppositions don’t win elections because Governments lose them. Although we’ve endured nine years of Helen’s bad hair days, John Key must provide far more than a rictus grin and a perfect haircut, perched above a stream of inconsequential and indecisive waffle.

And soon, Mr Key, because you won’t bamboozle anybody by piling on the policy in the last few weeks of an election campaign. We need to think seriously about you, and that takes time.

There is a growing suspicion that you don’t have a clue what to do. The fact is that we haven’t a clue about you and your party.