Having not so long ago professed not to be worried in the slightest about signs that Winston Peters was on the rise in the polls, John Key is now whistling a rather different tune in a somewhat shrill tone.
It seems the Prime Minister is no longer quite as confident as he was that Peters will not be on his way back to Parliament next Saturday night with five or six New Zealand First colleagues in tow.
National's leader has suddenly zeroed in on Peters' decision to rule out any post-election confidence and supply agreement with either National or Labour and instead sit on the Opposition benches.
Key has pronounced this to be a serious threat to the country's stability at a time when financial crisis elsewhere puts a premium on stability.
Key's warning has to be seen in the context of the party leaders heading into the final week of the campaign - a time when many people are firming up their voting intentions and the sloganeering and scaremongering consequently gets even louder and stronger. Witness Phil Goff's attempt at Labour's Auckland rally yesterday to define the election as being solely about asset sales.