As many of you will have observed from paying even the scantest attention to the news over the years, there are certain themes that develop when governments enact unpopular measures. There are trends that emerge, arguments that are repeatedly made, until the dust settles and the affected populace ends up trying to make the best of things, as they always do. We’ve seen this story a thousand times.

“MOTHER nature, she has her good days she has her bad days…I reckon mother nature is just a person standing up there and controlling our world,” an Australian farmer’s young son told actress Miriam Margolyes in her excellent TV series ‘Almost Australian’.

THIS column could have gone a number of ways. A pleasant meander on Christmas holidays, a regretful ponder on Brexit, or a grouse at having to end the year printing the PM’s condescending speech on the Penguin News front page.

The selective amnesia of successive Argentine governments never ceases to amaze. Last week, during universal rejoicing in the Falklands that the eleven year-long demining campaign had finally come to a successful conclusion, the Argentine Government was complaining about it in Geneva.

PN Journalist Mark Blackmore writes a weekly diary column ‘My Islands Week’. As a treat we offer you one free edition!

Do Falklands children and Military children share a resilience and pragmatism which offers useful insights in these times of COVID? In an article for Penguin News Phoebe Aldridge – daughter of a military family posted to the Falklands 2011-2013, and now a recent graduate examines an issue close to the hearts of both communities.