Will the real Bill English please stand up?

Finance Minister Bill English (L) and Oregon man Bill English
Finance Minister Bill English (L) and Oregon man Bill English

On Monday, Kiwi actress Lucy Lawless sent out a tweet to her more than 150,000 followers calling out Finance Minister Bill English on his latest Budget.

Meanwhile, a man in Oregon was sitting on the couch when his Apple Watch started "going bonkers" with alerts.

That man is also Bill English - a self-professed nerd with zero political experience who says he'd be willing to sell or trade his @BillEnglish Twitter handle for a premium action figure.

The Oregonian, who calls himself "The Real Bill English", says he's getting mistaken for the New Zealand Finance Minister - @HonBillEnglish - with increasing frequency.

"I ended up having to change my notification settings just to stay sane," he says. "It's all fun and games until the notifications are on your wrist."

But he's had @BillEnglish since 2008 and says changing it now would feel weird.

"I'd sell or trade it for a premium action figure though. That's my hobby and the budget is tight."

One Twitter user even suggested he move to New Zealand and become Finance Minister to put an end to the problem, but this Bill has no plans to visit New Zealand any time soon.

"I have never been to New Zealand, but my wife talks about vacationing there frequently ... maybe someday."

He just asks the other Bill English to make his Twitter handle more prominent in his campaigning materials.

"Either that or contact me about trading/buying mine."

The Finance Minister had a simple response to the mix-up.

"It could be worse - his name could be John Key."

Of course he's not the only Twitter user suffering from a case of mistaken identity. Newshub's own Political Editor, Patrick "Paddy" Gower, is still frequently mixed up with London-based reporter @PatrickGower.

"He is a Bloomberg reporter doing the business specialising on Brexit - that's real politics. We haven't met, but I owe him a beer when we do."

Paddy's message to Bill English and Bill English? "No advice for those guys, just sorrow for the Oregon guy who will keep getting tweets about surplus and external debt."

Newshub.