Mr Mallard and the Honourable Thing

I posted yesterday on the political judgement shown by Mr Mallard in the ticket sales saga. I watched him on TV last night and also heard him on the radio as he attempted to salvage the political fall-out of a poor decision. As I watched the TV interview, I felt a very human twinge of pity for the man. He looked and sounded stressed, even ill. He was doing an imposed public mea culpa even though he clearly felt that it was not necessarily needed. He knew that, at a time when National is staggering, such antics by him are a political gift to the government. He knew his judgement had been tested, and found lacking.

Reading the coverage, and thinking about the interviews, I believe that Mr Mallard should, in due course, signal that he's thinking about his future. He has been a stalwart of the LP for a generation. He was a good minister (on the whole) when in power. He's been an excellent constituency MP. Perhaps it is now time for him to go and do the work on education of which he often speaks, and to which he is deeply committed. New pastures beckon, and he should take up that opportunity.