United we fall

There is an old adage: "United we stand, divided we fall", wise words indeed but the events of November 5 would appear to bely this.

The previous council made quite a show of always presenting a united front, regardless of the debate which went before. Very admirable apparently, but it leaves the voter only one place to turn to when it comes time to mark the ballot paper.

A balanced budget?

According to Jan Cheek a balanced budget tops the Councillors' list of priorities. Therefore under current circumstances of reduced investment and fishing income we can expect this to mean that either FIG spending is going to be reduced and/or taxes and charges will be raised.

With the worldwide economic downturn it is perhaps easy to begrudgingly agree that these are our ways of experiencing the pain that everyone else in the world is suffering. However when something on the horizon suggests I might suffer pain, I'm quick to scurry about in search of reasons to avoid it.

Feathering The Nest

Watching the development (and degeneration) of discussions on here over the last couple of months from my elevated perch, it has become clear that there is an appetite for a proper discussion forum dedicated to Falklands issues. Blogs are not a good place to have a two way discussion: it is difficult to follow conversations and impossible to see if there have been any new comments unless you have a magical head for numbers or, of course, you subscribe.

So, as FIG cannot seem to get organised enough to do it - and really, why should they? - The Beak in its magnanimous role has decided to open and run a discussion forum.  The link is at the bottom of this post - we shall call it The Nest.

God bless the initiative

I had quite forgotten about the small notice in the PN to say that the BBC would be back on local FM but by chance this morning I cranked the dial to 106 in a moment of unconscious fiddling.

You can imagine how delighted I was to hear the smooth eloquence of the BBC delivering the news. I found the experience so intellectually uplifting that after just a few minutes I actually cooked breakfast by simply thinking about it and using the energy from excess IQ.

If Stuart isn’t knighted for his initiative then at the very least I hope he’ll feel the warmth of the Lord’s smile.

Constructive cynicism

The recent lack of posts belies the fact that the couple of weeks have been eventful for The Beak. Keen followers may have noticed the storm-in-a-teacup that brewed in the aftermath of the Demeaning article, but if you didn't, here's the gist of it: an accusation about an individual was made in an anonymous comment, counter accusations flew back and forth and somehow The Beak ended up getting blamed for it all. The Beak was forced to protest its innocence and close comments on the matter.

Nevertheless, a disgruntled reader followed up (or tried to) with a comment arguing that The Beak had taken a turn for the negative and had therefore lost his or her readership. This after two posts respectively praising a councillor and a decision that did away with needless bureaucracy. Tough crowd.