Tuesday morning

News from J-land continues to be low in mood, when I find myself closing one day and opening the following one asking for support. Nonetheless, out here in the islands, we have a huge scandal. I made an entry on Sunday, which I decided to delete until things had run their course for a bit.

Our Member of Parliament, Mr MacNeil, found himself apologising for some foolishness and stupidity that he committed two years ago. Following these revelations last Sunday, he has expressed bitter regret for his stupidity. Apparently, he attended the Inter Island Games in Shetland, and on one occasion started pouring drinks into two young women, then invited them up to his bedroom in the hotel. Although it was only "heavy petting", and both ladies admitted that nothing worse had happened, it does nobody's reputation any favours to do that sort of thing.

Particularly if you're the MP who has initiated the Cash for Honours inquiry, which has seen Prime Minister Tony Blair interviewed by the Police. For those outside the UK, under legislation from 1925, it is an offense to award anyone a peerage or a knighthood in exchange for money.

Anyway, it's a cloudy morning in Stornoway, where the talk of the town is all about this scandal. The worst of it is, that one of the two young ladies is the daughter of a local minister of the church; the other's father is also a well-respected member of local society. They are now saying that the journalist that they made the revelation to had promised not to reveal his sources; well, anyone who believes that sort of promises will also be taken in by a tomcat's promises of ever-lasting fielty in March. However, it's the MP that now has a serious damage-limitation exercise on his hands.

Who said nothing ever happened in the islands?