Spotted: Who was at the Backbencher the night before the Parliament protest? The Backbencher pub opposite Parliament was one of the businesses hit hardest by the 23-day Parliament protest on February and March, forced to close by the occupation at its front doors.
But those who took part did abit to make up for the lost revenue on Monday night, when a number of those protesters turning up for an informal reunion there ahead of their Tuesday protest.
It was, by one onlookers' account, a jovial evening on a night when an eclectic assortment of people turned up.
The observer told Beehive Diaries the festivities included taking selfies giving the finger to the puppet of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and handing out Make Ardern Go Away stickers to other pub-goers.
Some of those punters would have been less than appreciative of the offerings. Others who went to the pub that night included Labour's president Claire Szabo, who dined with Labour MP Priyanca Radhakrishnan. David Parker also popped in for a bit, as did Denis O'Reilly - and the Auditor General.
Labour's Whip Duncan Webb was spotted walking through Parliament with a box of Peroni under his arm. At first glance it seemed he was preparing to drown his sorrows after the expulsion of Gaurav Sharma the day before but a closer inspection revealed it was the alcohol-free Peroni. Beehive Diaries was impressed with the rigour of his adherence to Labour's alcohol code - until Webb was later spotted with an empty trolley and said he was off to get the real deal this time.
Sharma thoroughly cheesed off former Speaker Trevor Mallard this week - and not just because he used Parliamentary privilege to accuse Mallard of narking on him to the Labour whips. Mallard had secured himself a nice office in which to while away his last days as an MP in Parliament's glorious Edwardian library. The office might have consoled Mallard, who has had to give up the luxurious suite of rooms belonging to the Speaker, which includes a glorious sitting room, dining room, bedrooms, kitchenette and office.
Alas, it was not to be. Recently-expelled Sharma has nicked the library room from Mallard, who will now be housed with Labour's new intake in the basement. These are fairly pokey rooms that are only housing MPs in the first place because Bowen House, the usual haunt of these MPs, is undergoing earthquake strengthening.
Act's agriculture spokesman Mark Cameron was clearly missing his farm this week (given Wellington's seasonably dreadful weather, we don't blame him). Cameron was in Act's office this week when he spied a cow on the television, which stopped him in his tracks. According to people in the room, Cameron was unable to moove (ahem) while the cow was on-screen and stood transfixed before the television. His colleague, Brooke van Velden snapped a picture for Beehive Diaries.
Mark Cameron and cow. Photo / Brooke van Velden
Your columnist has been the subject of multiple cases of mistaken identity this week, but none was worse than Labour's finance and expenditure committee chair Barbara Edmonds mistaking him in conversation with his boss. Edmonds mistook your columnist, Thomas Coughlan, for his better-looking former colleague, Stuff senior political reporter Thomas Manch. Edmonds cannot be blamed, given your columnist's fairly promiscuous attitude to employment in the press gallery (three outlets in four and a half years), but he had hoped his good attendance at finance and expenditure committee meetings would count for something. Edmonds' compliments on his coat at a recent committee meeting were kind enough for her to be forgiven.
