Political diary

TUESDAY

Finally the Prime Minister's big day - the first sod turning on one of the routes chosen for his Grand Cycle Trail. It's unfortunate timing, days after Rodney Hide was caught slagging off Key to Act supporters for having no ideas other than the cycleway. Hide's observation left at least one person happy - Green MP Kevin Hague, who has been working on the cycle network with the PM's Office. Speaking at the Waikato River Trail ceremony, he noted how important the PM's personal attention had been in ensuring the idea progressed with haste.

"Indeed, we've now learnt in the last week that this is the only thing he does. So I thank him for his dedication."

He wonders why Hide is not more involved in the cycleway, as local governments have supported the routes. Then he recalls that Hide's prescription for local government duties is restricted to "rats, rates and rubbish" - not cycleways.

WEDNESDAY

As much of the world celebrates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the wall in TV3's office in the Press Gallery also falls. TV3 is expanding its parliamentary office space to fit extra staff for the political programme previously known as Agenda. It once ran on TV One, but was ditched in favour of the state-owned broadcaster's in-house Q + A and has now been picked up by TV3. Although it's not quite official yet, the host for the show is expected to be Stephen Parker - TV3's former political editor and now press secretary for Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee. The move from journalist to press secretary is a relatively well-trodden passage, but the return journey is not so frequently made. The question is how long the Government or TV3 will be happy for Parker to remain in the Government's inner circles.

THURSDAY

Hopefully, it wasn't journalists but merely overly loyal officials toadying up to their masters who broke into applause at the start and finish of the press conference held by Apec finance ministers at the end of a day of discussions at the annual Apec summit in Singapore this week.

It will have been the first time Bill English has been clapped for his contribution at a press conference. He had to answer only one question - one put to all 21 ministers present to answer individually: how in a word or two would they describe the state of the world economy. His staff were not among those putting their hands together.

FRIDAY

Still in Singapore, where Trade Minister Tim Groser and the PM's press secretary get a real-life example of what happens when the tail does not know what the head is doing. Although motorcades are usually run like military movements, Prime Minister John Key's motorcade is split into two on the journey from the Conrad Hotel, where he was staying, to Raffles Hotel for a trade meeting with the Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang. Groser and the press secretary were in the second half, which dropped its passengers at the wrong end of the immense Raffles complex, resulting in a sweat-inducing sprint back through the Singapore heat to where the meeting was taking place.