Barry Soper: How the Greens imploded over Metiria Turei saga

What happened to the last week, or more importantly what happened in the past week?

The Greens were doing their best to recover from the hammering they'd be taking after their then co-leader Metiria Turei made what she obviously thought was a major concession on this day last week in the wake of her benefit fraud admission - she wouldn't be seeking a position in a Labour-led Cabinet.

In reality the concession wasn't one at all - she'd already been told a few hours earlier, via an emissary from Labour, that she wouldn't be getting one anyway.

But she was adamant, she wasn't going anywhere and never was a truer statement made.

Just when we'd thought we'd heard it all from that camp, there was more to come on Monday.

Old timers-Kennedy Graham and David Clendon decided the party led by Turei was toxic and they wanted no part of it while she remained in the job.

She battled on against what became decreasing odds, insisting she was staying put.

But then as her taxi meter was ticking over in Wellington, the flag fell.

She was calling it quits, not just from the leadership but from Parliament as well.

The scrutiny of herself and her family had become all too much was the reason she gave and was sticking to it.

In reality, she'd not long before been told about the dismal results of the same opinion poll that a week earlier had given the Greens a lift to their highest rating ever.

The scrutiny came as result of her using welfare fraud as a political tool and from the number of people, some close to her, who felt she didn't deserve to be painted as a hand-to-mouth martyr.

They claimed a supportive family at the time saw to that.

The sole leader of the Greens for the time being, James Shaw, hasn't covered himself in leadership glory either, meandering all over the place when it came to the defecting MPs, initially cutting them loose saying they should be expelled from the party, before sleeping on it, and seeming to embrace them before again saying they'd be lucky to get their jobs back.

Clendon's not interested but it seems Graham is, curiously saying he'd never resigned.

The party's now clearly punch drunk with Julie-Anne Genter, the woman who's being tipped as a possible successor to Turei, scowling as I passed her on the way into the office: "Feeling vindicated," she spat.

"No," I replied, which saw her raising her frustrated hand in the air before declaring "it worked."

The greenhorns have to stop blaming everyone else and understand who the author of their misfortune really is.

If they want to turn up with the right glass slipper for Jacindarella next month, they'd do well to reflect on that.