I know Russell was very taken by the 'Dirty Politics' chapter on the Rodney selection process. So what can he tell us about the new MP for Southland, 24-year-old Todd Barclay? After working in the offices of Bill English, Hekia Parata, and Gerry Brownlee, a short stint as 'corporate affairs manager' at tobacco giant Philip Morris earned young Todd the Southland nomination - one of the safest seats in the country, with a 13583 majority on the night. Love to know what was going on there.

Re: tactical voting: In Epsom, Labour + Green + NZF + Maori + IM candidates received 5557 votes, their parties received 8926. So maybe about 38% voted tactically (presumably for the National candidate). National received 9398 candidate and 19961 party votes, so 53% voted tactically. It's hard to believe that anything would cause even more people to vote tactically, it's already significant on both sides.