Thursday
There are a lot of things going on in the UK and internationally, but they are all extremely depressing. Instead let’s turn to Falklands politics, where there was outstanding entertainment on offer from the Standing Finance Committee, as reported in last week’s Penguin News. I know that’s not a sentence one sees very often.

Thursday
Many times while I was in the Penguin News office, we’d sigh and reluctantly conclude that it was time to do another oil story. The changes we’d be reporting on were always newsworthy – investment and mergers and other words that business people like to say – yet there was also a sense of stasis, of events leaving us exactly where we were before.

ON grabbing a quick chat with the two by-election candidates after their Chamber of Commerce session on Tuesday it occurred to me afterwards – as it always does post interview now I’m old and medicated – there were a couple of questions I might have asked but didn’t. The first – who’s more intimidating, farmers or chamber members, and the second, the next ExCo election will be pre-Christmas – would you be keen to take up the challenge?

In this week’s paper is an excellent feature on mental health services in the Falklands and the review going on at the moment.

Wednesday
As part of the high-pressure world of investigative journalism, we have to take pages up to the Print Shop several times a week. Normally Lisa or Nick do the honours, and if they are unavailable then Fran. I tend not to do it because, as Lisa has explained, I am too handsome and charismatic to waste on the trip, and I should stay in the office in case we get an unexpected visit from King Charles or Elton John.
It’s not because I would find some way to make an arse of it. Let’s be absolutely clear about that right from the off.

Editorial by Deputy Editor Nick Roberts….

MARK speaks on page 7 about the fact that “Neoliberalism means deregulated markets, privatisation, austerity and as little state influence in the economy as possible,” and that in the UK “we pay for dentists, care homes, further education and eye tests, and we fund shareholder payouts from rail, telecoms, water, gas and electricity.”