Cancel the champers, Gilmore's in town

I expect they are busy ordering in extra champagne and beer at the Kingsgate Hotel.

Mind, I suspect the bar staff there might be feeling a little nervous. The reason? Aaron Gilmore is in town.

The Heritage Hotel in Hanmer Springs is still reeling after the National Party MP attended a shindig down there last week and ended up with his face splashed all over the front pages and TV news bulletins.

The story goes that copious quantities of alcohol made Mr Gilmore "boisterous"; that he was whistling at the waiters and clicking his fingers; that things turned ugly when he was refused more drink.

The occasion was National's regional conference and, funnily enough, that's exactly what brings him to Wanganui this week - the party's lower North Island regional conference. Being a list MP and therefore attached to no particular geographical constituency, Mr Gilmore has no excuse for not attending any of these get-togethers. In fact, as a party animal, I imagine he regards attendance as compulsory.

When this story first broke, I thought they must have meant Ewen Gilmour, an occasionally funny NZ comedian, but Ewen has been a publicly-funded servant as a Waitakere City councillor, so obviously no connection.

Did Aaron really turn on an unobliging waiter and demand: "Do you know who I am?" The answer then could only be "No". If he tries that at the Kingsgate on Saturday, the bar staff should now be able to quote chapter and verse on the man who has apologised for being a bully (the allegation is that he threatened to have Prime Minister John Key sack the poor waiter).

Speaking of Mr Key, he is also attending the conference at the Victoria Avenue establishment. Will the PM again be the undercard to Mr Gilmore's main event?

If it is any consolation to those who serve - and also wait - at the Kingsgate, a repentant Mr Gilmore said this week: "No service industry worker deserved to be treated rudely. I behaved badly and I crossed a line. It will not happen again." On second thoughts, cancel the beer and champers and order extra tonic water.