As promised, the weekly Dispatch from Helengrad has been retitled "Dispatch from St Johnnysburg" as I report on politics in the capital under St Johnny - the man who can't stop smiling.

Best Play of the Week

It is a tie between Helen Clark and John Key.

Helen Clark has been in amazing form since, and on election night. In three days she resigns as Leader, takes Cullen with her, arranges an uncontested leadership election, and frees Labour from any need for recriminations. We have seen Clark at her vintage best and she scores an A.

I have little doubt that Phil Goff is not Helen's first choice for Leader. They were both in Cabinet with Sir Roger Douglas and she knows he was an enthusiatic supporter. Even though he has served loyally for nine years, she would rather have the leadership go to the next generation.

But Clark knows she did not have that luxury. If Labour had done well enough so the Maori Party held the balance of power, and then National managed to get them to abstain, Clark could have stayed Leader for a year or so, and given Cunliffe and maybe Jones time to build their credentials in Opposition.

But Clark was astute enough to know instictively on the night that a loss of this magnitude needed a quick leadership change. The alternative would have been months and months of destabilisation. So she resigned, despite knowing that this would probably lead to Phil Goff being elected unoppossed.

Goff though is no Leader for life. He should lead them into 2011, but like Mike Moore will be rolled within days if he loses. It is also not impossible that there could be leadership agitating before 2011, if Labour makes no traction in the polls.

John Key also scores an A for doing coalition agreements (and that is what they are if they involve Ministers being appointed) with three parties, when he could have done it with one party.

Peter Dunne gets a job because he defected before, not after the election, and gave National a nice jolt of momentum. Also Dunne is a very safe and competent Minister.

There was never much doubt ACT would get a deal, so long as they did not insist on Sir Roger as a Minister or totally dumping the Emissions Trading Scheme. ACT has a Caucus of five, and four of them are very strong personalities. This relationship may be one of the more challenging for Key.

It says something about modern day politics, that National activists up and down New Zealand are celebrating the likely deal with the Maori Party that will probaly see Pita Sharples and Tariana Turia made Ministers. The Author can remember the days Mrs Turia was cited by National as a scary separatist!

The deal with the Maori Party has benefits in the short-term, medium-term and long-term. In the short-term John Key gets screeds of positive publicity for reaching out when he didn't have to. Urban liberals especially feel better about voting for him.

In the medium-term, you have three of the five parties in Parliament (I don't count one MP as a party) supporting the Government, and only two against. You also have the ability to emulate Helen Clark by passing legislation through help on your right (ACT) or left (Maori).

And in the long-term, it means that if in 2011 the Maori Party do hold the balance of power, then they would be able to judge what life was like as National's preferred cab as oppossed to being Labour's last cab off the rank.

Worst Play of the Week

This also gets a tie. It goes to Mike Williams and Rodney Hide who both get Ds.

Overall it has been a good week for Rodney, but it was foolish to label John Key as more left wing than Helen Clark on Sunday. And to say it not once, but twice, in front of him. The election campaign was over and voters in Epsom would have been asking themselves if they split their vote so Rodney could embarrass the new Prime Minister. Whether or not it is true is not the point (there are some issues I might even be seen to be to the left of Helen on). It was boorish.

Mike Williams shares the (dis)honours with his insistence that he does not regret his trip to Melbourne - just that it didn't find any dirt. Doesn't even need commenting on.

Electoral Finance Act breach of the Week

This is the final inclusion of this section, with Phil Goff's mea culpa that the Electoral Finance Act is flawed law and more importantly should never have been passed without proper consultation.

Labour's u-turn is welcome and necessary. This does allow a replacement law to be considered in a less charged environment. At the end of the day, electoral law can be passed by a majority, but this should only happen after genuine attempts at consensus have failed.

The u-turn should also lead to a reduction in the number of complaints over minor and trivial breaches. The lack of an authorisation statement on a newsletter from an MP is actually of almost no consequence, as it is obvious who has authorised it. But due to the way the law was passed, and its draconian clauses on requiring home addresses, activists targetted the parties that passed it for minor breaches.

It will be nice to return to the days, when only significant breaches such as $400,000 pledge cards get complained about.

Scandal of the Week

I'll share the honours again, and name two Immigration scandals that may be ticking time bombs.

There are still a host of unasnwered questions over why Shane Jones over-rode his officials and granted Yang Liu or Youngming Yan citizenship despite very serious questions over his identity and possible criminal record.

This should be the subject of an independent inquiry, not a Departmental review.

There are also the allegations against new National List MP, Kanwaljit Bakshi, that he offered jobs that did not exist to help immigrants enter. The allegations may well be baseless, but if John Key wants to set a different style to Helen Clark, he would do well to make sure there is an inquiry into them - even if just to ascertain the total number of job offers made by his new MP to potential immigrants. Because if John doesn't inquire, then I am sure Labour will be preparing the Official Information Act requests as you read this.

The Shane Jones scandal has it all - political donations, other MPs, alleged criminal behaviour, false identities and is an A- scandal. The Bakshi one at this stage seems more sedate and only ranks a C.