The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor tells me several things, one of which is how much the late Queen really dropped the ball on this one. And that’s putting it politely.

She was the one who protected him when all the stories started to emerge. She was the one who, apparently, helped him out with some of the hush money paid out to one of his accusers.

Which only fueled the impression - rightly or wrongly - that the Royal Family thought it was above everything and everyone else.

Which is why I think this development is a brilliant opportunity for the monarchy.

Because this takes the monarchy down a peg or two, which can only be a good thing in the public’s eyes.

King Charles obviously sees an opportunity. He hasn’t been slow in coming forward, saying “the law must take its course”.

We’ve also got the likes of Major General Alastair Bruce, who is a historian and a royal watcher for Sky News, saying that this is “the most shocking day for the British Crown, to have a former prince of the blood arrested”.

Other commentators are describing the arrest as “extraordinary”, “unprecedented”, “spectacular” and a “body blow”.

Whether it is a body blow remains to be seen. Because these developments overnight show that the monarchy is just as answerable as the rest of us. Which is no bad thing, is it?

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National's Matt Doocey and Labour's Megan Woods joined John MacDonald for Politics Friday this week.

They covered some of the biggest topics from the week from the Infrastructure Commissions report, NZ First pushing for English to become an official language, and they reflect on the February 2011 earthquake sixteen years on.

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How do you feel about being told you need to spend more money?

That’s what the Reserve Bank’s chief economist wants you to do.

As expected, the bank’s governor announced yesterday that there would be no change in the official cash rate because the bank doesn’t want to do anything that could put the brakes on the economic recovery.

Which some people are feeling the benefits of, while others aren’t. Which the Reserve Bank describes as an uneven recovery. Meaning we’re still in for a bit of a haul before we all feel some sort of benefit.

Tell that, though, to the bank’s chief economist Paul Conway who is giving us all a bit of a hurry along, saying people need to stop being so cautious with their money and get out and spend more.

How realistic is that, do you think?

If you’re not having a “tell him he’s dreaming moment”, then you must be one of the people who are already feeling the benefit of an economic recovery.

But, generally, what planet is Paul Conway on, telling us to spend more?

Because we’re doing that already. Not out of choice. Not because we’re feeling particularly flush. But we’re spending more just to get by.

Two days ago, new numbers came out showing that grocery prices are still going up.

White bread prices up 57.9 percent in the past year.

Chocolate up 20 percent.

Not to mention mince. That’s pink gold these days.

Which is why I think this statement by the Reserve Bank’s chief economist that we need to stop being so tight and start spending more is just ridiculous.

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Bic Runga is back with her first new album in fifteen years.

She spoke with John MacDonald about her new album, Red Sunset, and touched on what genres inspired the album.

"I'm always inspired by anything from the 60's and 70's especially."

She also spoke about her biggest hit Sway, and its everlasting popularity thirty years on.

"It found a life of its own, I never thought that would happen."

Runga embarks on an Australasian tour with the new album and will return home to Christchurch to play the Isaac Theatre Royal on Sunday, March 29th.

The new album, Red Sunset is out now all streaming platforms.

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One of the problems with politicians is that they often stake their political survival on big infrastructure projects.

Which is why we’ve got Waimakariri MP Matt Doocey and Waimakariri mayor Dan Gordon jumping up and down saying like hell, there’ll be no Woodend Bypass.

The thing that’s got them excited is the new national infrastructure plan released by the Infrastructure Commission which, in a nutshell, says we should be building more hospitals and less big roads. They’ll be getting no argument from me.

Dan Gordon is rejecting any suggestion the bypass is a lower priority than other projects. But he would say that. He says more than 20,000 vehicles go through Woodend every day, and that’s only going to increase.

He says: “The town is quite literally divided in two by the state highway and the risk this has posed for decades is not acceptable. As the community grows this risk only increases.”

And he’s not having a bar of the Infrastructure Commission’s push for more tolling charges on roads, either.

I think he’s pushing that one uphill. Because, it’s very clear to me that charging tolls to use roads is the way of the future. It has to be. because, as a country, we don’t have the money.

Meanwhile, MP Matt Doocey is saying there’s no way the bypass is going to go down the pecking order.

He says: “If experts think the date for exceeding capacity of the current road in Woodend is still some years away, they clearly weren't stuck in traffic last Friday night after work like I was.”

He’s not anti-tolls, though. Matt Doocey says if paying a toll means roads being built sooner and faster, then that’s how it has to be.

But I think he and Dan Gordon need to show some fortitude and, instead of banging-on about the Woodend Bypass just because they’ve staked their political careers on it, they should admit that we need to make the big calls as to what really is most important.

Because I can’t argue with what the Infrastructure Commission is saying.

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Chris Hipkins says we need to take the politics out of the Infrastructure Commissions National Infrastructure Plan.

The Leader of the Opposition told John MacDonald that he thinks the Commission has done a "really good job" on their recent report, and we need to focus on the basics.

"They've pointed out we have an over reliance on shiny new things, and we haven't done the basic maintenance of the things we've already got."

"We need to take the politics out of it and focus on a long-term plan."

On the rise of Winson Peters and NZ First in the polls, he said that Peter's lifetime in politics has given some unique political skills of reinvention.

"At the moment, he's trying to be an opposition MP while also trying to be the third highest ranking minster in the current government."

When asked if he has considered working with Peters to form the next government, Hipkins said that's something they will look at closer to election day.

"We'll set out closer to the election where we've got common ground with other parties."

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NZ First is on the up, according to the latest 1News Verian poll.

The result out last night had Winston Peters’ party on 10 percent - its highest rating in that particular poll since August 2017.

It comes just a few weeks after a Taxpayers’ Union poll ranked NZ First the third most popular party in Parliament.

Ask NZ Herald chief political reporter Jamie Ensor and he’ll tell you more and more voters are liking the party because of its cautious approach on immigration and climate change policies. That it’s a party that is seen as anti-establishment and has, as he puts it, “a charismatic no-nonsense leader”.

That bit about Winston Peters being anti-establishment is a reference to his flirtatious relationship with the conspiracy theory brigade. Which tends to be the Winston Peters we see here at home. When he’s running around community halls up and down the country barking into microphones.

When he jumps on a plane, though, and heads overseas as the Foreign Affairs Minister, he’s a completely different guy, isn’t he?

Nevertheless, whatever version we get on any given day, more people seem to be liking it.

My theory is that NZ First is only on the rise because all the other options are so bad.

I can’t believe that two-and-a-half years on from the last election, I’m still in the same boat and have no idea who I want to vote for.

That’s how I felt at the last election and that’s how I’m feeling now.

I’ve spoken to plenty of people recently who say they’re looking seriously at NZ First. People of all ages.

What has surprised me most, is the number of young people who seem to like what the party is saying about immigration.

These are people who aren’t just seeing NZ First as an option because they don’t think any of the other parties are offering anything. They’re actually liking what the party is saying.

And that’s what we’re seeing in the polls.

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Isn’t David Seymour the guy who got himself into government at the last election and then went and set up a new government department?

But, despite the irony, I agree with him that we need fewer government departments and fewer Cabinet ministers.

Previously, the ACT leader has described the public sector as "a big, complicated bureaucratic beast".

There are the numbers to back that up. We have 82 cabinet portfolios, 28 ministers and 41 separate government departments and agencies.

David Seymour thinks that’s crazy and says ACT will campaign in this year’s election on changing that. And, instead of having 41 government departments and agencies, he wants us to have no more than 30.

As for cabinet ministers - at the moment there are 28, David Seymour thinks we need no more than 20.

I remember Oliver Hartwich from the NZ Initiative think tank saying last year that we could get away with having as few as 15 cabinet ministers, instead of the 28 we have at the moment.

But he thought that 20 was more realistic.

As for government departments, they are monsters. They operate in silos. They compete with each other for funding. They don’t talk to each other. That’s why there’s so much duplication.

For example, do we need a Ministry of Education and an Education Review Office? I don’t think so.

Do we need a Ministry of Justice and a Department of Corrections? Possibly not.

As for cabinet positions, do we need a mental health minister? Could that all be part of the health minister’s job?

And don’t get me started on things like the Minister for the South Island or the Minister for Auckland that Labour brought in.

So, I’m with David Seymour and I think we could do with fewer government departments and agencies.

But it will never happen.

Talking about having less government departments and less cabinet ministers is easy and politicians talk about it because they know it tends to go down well with people.

But it will never happen. Because, whether people admit it or not, they still expect the government and its departments to fix everything.

And, unless that changes, the government isn’t going to get any smaller. And its list of departments isn’t going to get any shorter.

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