Surely not. Say it aint so, Tau.

The MP christened the “minister of Twitter” by the New Zealand Herald has announced – on Twitter, naturally – that he will say nothing more about his ambitions to succeed Lockwood Smith as parliamentary speaker.

For reasons unexplained, the National list MP, who had earlier confirmed his candidacy on the microblog suddenly announced late last week:

For those of you who don’t think I’m serious about being Speaker, I am serious, so I won’t tweet, FB [Facebook], or make any more public statements.

Puzzling. Since his abrupt decision, the timeline of the “WestSideTory” has been for the most part a dripfeed of drivel about fitness programmes and nicotine gum.

Still, nature abhors a vacuum, and it was swiftly filled by a sweary and short-tempered spoof tweeting Tau, @SpeakerHenare.

The account, which was created before the real Henare’s vow of silence but has emerged to some prominence since, is following only one other Twitter account: @TrevorMallard.