Teflon John Key strode confidently towards the media pack to deliver what he clearly considered was a king hit to Labour. What in fact he delivered was a tap on the cheek.

His parting shot to the media was "it's not about me." It had just been put to him that he was now willing to include a flag design in the now final five, the red peak, that he doesn't like one bit.

If the unthinkable happened and the design made it as the contender against the current ensign then he must surely see it as something of a slap in the face considering he's a publicly proclaimed silver fern man. Similarly if the current flag wins in the run off, again he'd have to view it as a severe cuffing considering that was the point of his whole exercise, to excise the stars and Union Jack stripes from our flagpoles in the first place.

So, in reality, the debate has indeed been about him and his influence over God's Own.

As for Labour, well it's plans are now hanging at half mast. Secretly it didn't want a bar of the red peak design but was prepared to live with it if Key agreed to change the first referendum and allow a yes/no vote on whether we actually want a flag change.

Labour's always wanted a flag change and it wanted it decided by referendum, just not the way Key's doing it. When he knew he wasn't going to change the PM's mind, Angry Andy Little said he was prepared to meet Teflon John without any preconditions. The mistake he made was waxing on about the yes/no vote in the letter seeking the meeting.

Not surprisingly Key gave him the cold shoulder.

The Greens then deftly shouldered their way into the debate, coming up with a bill to include the red peak without making a mention of a yes/no vote. In chats with Key's chief of staff, they agreed they'd vote against Labour, yes they'd vote against their ticket to power, if they tried to amend the bill to include the vote.

Key was left with nowhere to go, having already agreed if there was cross party support, excluding the Peters Party of course, then he'd be willing to include the flag favoured by Facebook followers.

And Little was gazumped, although his gazumping could be less painful than Key's after the second referendum in March!