Is a noose slowly being tightened around the Prime Minister's neck?
Kim Dotcom may have wasted the first 14 of his allotted 15 minutes in front of Parliament's intelligence and security committee reading out a worthy but turgid statement outlining the failings of legislation clarifying the functions of the Government
Communications Security Bureau - the agency that illegally spied on the Megaupload founder. But then came the sting.
As a modern-day soothsayer warning of the pending "Dark Ages of Spying", he was suitably attired in his trademark black, barring a thin red line running along his trainers. His only concession to the committee was to remove his baseball cap - black, of course.
His treatise, however, failed to excite Winston Peters, who was fighting a losing battle with his drooping eyelids. But Peters knew what was coming after John Key, who is chairing the hearings on the bill, generously agreed to a request from the Greens' Russel Norman for an extension of time for Dotcom.
On Tuesday, Peters had posed a series of questions asking Key whether he had been telling the truth about what he knew and when about the January 2012 police raid on the Dotcom mansion at Coatesville. Key replied with an unequivocal "yes".
