The Peters party survives on belief that Winston defends the realm against establishment conspirators. That faith has been held by enough people to get Peters over the 5% mark time and again.

Accordingly, despite the pressure on National (and Labour) to send him to the political wilderness by vowing not to give him power next time, a premature move could have revived the convictions of the believers, after weeks of having their faith shaken by Peters behaviour and the contradictory evidence pointing to hypocrisy.

Because of the risk that those people would  treat the big parties "ganging up" on Peters as confirmation of his outsider status, the stake would only go through NZ First’s heart if it was propelled by the plain facts or some objective body (the SFO?). To stay buried he must be buried by the evidence, not a political adversary.

Today’s Glenn evidence was so simple it leaves room for only one of two conclusions –  one of Glenn and Peters is not telling the truth.

The weight of evidence is now sufficient to justify John Key’s decision that: "he would not accept Mr Peters holding a position in a future National Cabinet unless he could provide a "credible explanation" following evidence put before Parliament’s Privileges Committee by Mr Glenn, which "appears inconsistent" with Mr Peters’ earlier evidence" as stuff reports it.

John Key was right to resist the pressure and ignore the criticism till now.