Political diary

Sunday

Try as we might, we are having trouble springing to the defence of the Beehive following its shock ranking at No 3 on the list of the world's ugliest buildings compiled by VirtualTourist.com. The tourism information-gathering website likened the Beehive's design to "a slide projector that fell on a wedding cake that fell on a waterwheel" and added that the building's proximity to the neighbouring Edwardian neo-classical Parliament House "only accentuates its unattractiveness". Architectural merit aside, those who have worked for Cabinet ministers in the Beehive are pretty united in criticising the building for being user-unfriendly, particularly its tendency to isolate its inhabitants from one another. In a bold attempt to be positive, we've managed to come up with five good things to say about the building. First, being round, it is not difficult for out-of-towners to find. Second, while visitors coming out of the ground floor lifts are often completely flummoxed as to which door goes out of the building, the absence of corridors makes it difficult for anyone to get lost. Third, it is the safest place to be if (or rather when) the Big One strikes Wellington. So safe, in fact, that Civil Defence's emergency headquarters are in the building's bowels. Fourth, VirtualTourist.com's ranking will paradoxically make the Beehive a tourist attraction in its own right. Fifth, the building has historic value as a monument to its builder, the old Ministry of Works, and its love of concrete.

Tuesday

Well, better late than never ... The Cabinet Office has produced a six-page circular entitled "National-led Administration: Consultation and Operating Arrangements'. The instructions on how ministers should consult with each other and National's support partners, Act and the Maori Party, are simple commonsense. But after the foul-ups in coalition management which have plagued the Government , someone must have thought it all needed to be put in writing. Pity it is only a yearlate ...

Wednesday

A near-crisis in the parliamentary chamber as the House resumes debate on the Government's emissions trading legislation. The bell the Speaker rings to warn MPs with the call they are running or have run out of time has stopped working. With the House once again sitting for extended hours under urgency, Assistant Speaker Rick Barker jokingly claims the bell had broken down through overwork.

Thursday

Taking a break from pinging National's Steven Joyce over broadband policy, Labour's Clare Curran has been extolling the culinary virtues of what the cooking cognescenti are describing as 'the sushi of the south" - cheese rolls. Borrowing from Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn, the Dunedin South MP has been blogging an Ode to a Cheese Roll on the Labour MPs' Red Alert website. Curran has yet to burst into verse. But that cannot be far off. For the uninitiated cheese rolls are made by filling a slice of bread with a mixture of cheese, onion and onion soup powder. Optional extras include reduced cream, mustard, parsley and chives. The bread is then folded and grilled, and the toasted cheese roll is buttered on the outside. A cholesterol horror story no less. Curran has been talking up the delicacy after discovering some of her colleagues didn't know what a cheese roll was. "I grew up with cheese rolls," she wrote. "I expect everyone to know what they are. But they don't... Why does this matter? Well, if you live in my part of the country, the south, then the cheese roll is, well, it's an institution. It's used for school fundraisers, it's sold with pride in cafes (coffee shops) with lashings of butter on the outside. And the further south you get, the bigger they get, and the more lashings of butter." Curran's recommendation as to who makes the best cheese rolls? Mrs Clarks Cafe in Riverton in Southland.