Benson-Pope is gone!!!!

Sound like Benson Pope will be gone by lunchtime. TVNZ have done a useful chronology of cockups and managed to spell Benson-Pope in three different ways - perhaps to go with three different versions of his story. Benson-Pope will be giving a statement later on.

UPDATE He resigned before he was pushed. Well before lunchtime too. Now, I wonder if Ministry for the Environment boss Hugh Logan will be asked whether he Benson-Pope told him "I`m not having this woman working in my office" - and if he did so, whether Logan will reveal that.

Benson-Pope said he regretted his resignation but he had not done anything "inappropriate".

"I have had more than my fair share of personal abuse and attack from the opposition, their fellow travellers and parts of the media," he said in his statement, which he wrote last night after Heather Simpson called him and told him it was all over.

Most of the attacks were deserved, of course. Good riddance. Lets have a by-election as well.

Well done the media - particularly Duncan Garner. Well done the opposition researchers for question 6.Without you Benson -Pope would still be a Minister today.

Benson-Pope's admission

David Benson -Pope has finally admitted that he had a chat to the Chief Executive of the Ministry of the Environment and told him he would not be comfortable working with Madeleine Setchell - that he would be less free and frank with her. Setchell is the partner of John Key's chief media advisor and was accepted for a ministry job..

All along Benson-Pope has been misleading about whether he gave an opinion to Hugh Logan about whether Setchell should keep her job. He has misled Parliament, the media and the State Services Commission as well as Helen Clark.

He is a liability and his credibility is shot. How can he possible be trusted.The honourable liar should be sacked. I think he will be. Mr Logan and Deputy State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie will hold a media conference tomorrow which may shed more light on the truth.

However the story will not finish then - remember Helen Clark still said that Setchell shouldn't have been appointed in the first place, undermining the neutrality of the public service. Michael Cullen has come out in support of his leader's statement. The Press Gallery still have some work to do. Setchell lost her job solely because of her relationship - not because of her political affiliation, and if the PM says Setchell should not have been appointed, she appears to be content she was sacked.

That's a disgrace.