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.

Jane Cameron – truly “the special one”

The death of any person is difficult to bear for family and friends, more so, perhaps, if that death was caused by accident and our sympathies go out to all those in the Falklands for whom the festive season has been marred by bereavement.

Red tapers struck down

Dullards we are, one and all. Too busy we are crying and whinging about being choked by red tape that we fail to see small victories and rejoice in them. I refer to a notice in the back pages of the Penguin News of a few weeks ago informing us that we may now import a number of types of fruit without the need for the tedium of a pile of documentation, albeit with a few conditions.

Diddle Deemail

The Diddle Dee Telegraph still works – some would say more effectively than Cable and Wireless - and occasionally brings good news from unexpected quarters. The Beak was cheered last week to discover by this medium that Sharon Halford, as one of the elected members for the Camp in this Council is now emailing all her constituents with regular reports on what she is doing on their behalf. Whether or not Sharon’s reports make riveting reading, the fact that she is sending them is a praiseworthy acknowledgement of her accountability to the people who put her where she is and, incidentally, dispels the belief held by at least one member of the previous assembly that such communication is “elitist.”

Demeaning

With no shortage of rant-worthy issues soaking up The Beak's creative juices of late, it has taken over a week to put finger to keyboard regarding a recent feather-ruffling matter.

The case in question is a brief letter in the Your Questions Answered section (aka the civil servant letters page) of the December 4th Penguin News, asking if it was true that the staff carrying out the business end of the demining operation had never done such work before. It took a couple of minutes for the implications of this question to sink in: Complete novices. Handling 28 year old explosive devices. Could someone really think this was going on? They may as well have asked "Is it true that Bactec will be using the Irish demining technique (hands on ears, one foot stamping)?"

Falkland Islands News Network - Time to bomb it?

Those of us in the Falkland Islands fortunate enough not only to get TV reception, but also to enjoy the varied range of channels offered by KTV, may have come across the satirical news programme, The Daily Show. This programme, which is broadcast by CNN and hosted by Jon Stewart uses a conventional news desk format to take an irreverent and sometimes hilarious look at the stories currently in the news.

Presumably to avoid legal action, but also for the benefit of any idiots who might be watching, the screening of The Daily Show is preceded by a disclaimer which states that the views expressed in the programme are not those of the broadcaster and have not been fully thought out. It also states that the presenter and the reporters featured are not journalists.

Sane regular readers of the Falkland Islands News Network (FINN), if there are any, and particularly anyone who has read an article of December 3rd entitled: Falklands’ Oil –Time to Defuse the Bomb, must surely be wondering why, if in the name of free speech we must permit this kind of incoherent dribble, it cannot also be preceded by a similar disclaimer.