Dearest Gentle Reader, this Monday brings a record that nobody wished to see broken, a counter-terror operation at an airbase so significant it once stood ready for the American space shuttle, and a Prime Minister with a splendid vision he would rather not explain quite yet. There is also an eleven-year-old who is already making history while the rest of us are still making tea - and that, at least, is cause for genuine delight.

Dearest Gentle Reader, this Tuesday has delivered a budget shortfall, a political backstab before breakfast, and - most remarkably - a marmoset discovered abandoned on a north-west London omnibus. The new prime minister has not yet had time to find the kettle in his new residence, and already the knives are sharpened and the public finances are looking distinctly fragile. This Author has opinions on all of it, and decorum shall restrain only the mildest of them.

Dearest Gentle Reader, the Southern Kingdom broils at thirty-seven degrees and the corridors of power run equally hot - a Chancellor faces demotion, a defence plan presses on without its Prime Minister, and a national inquiry at last names the towns where truth has too long been buried. This Author has much to report, and not all of it may be borne lightly.