IN a report on the Falkland Islands National Stud Flock, Director of Natural Resources, Dr Andrea Clausen said that wool sales continue to be slow with few offers received and those that have come in being too far off AWEX to accept. Wool is being held in the hope of market improvement.However, shearling ewes were shorn in October revealing very clean wool of excellent quality. Wool quality testing was completed in September for all pre-lamb sheared ewes and shearling ewes. Hoggets and mature rams were sampled in October.Pregnancy scanning of ewes showed a 98% rate for naturally mated ewes and 104% for those receiving AI. The number of twins was relatively high and therefore survival will be tracked carefully.The report was read to the meeting by Falkland Islands Government Head of Agriculture Matt Davies as Dr Clausen was away. RPT

CONVERSATIONS with LATAM are still ongoing regarding the resumption of the weekly Falkland Islands/ Brazil flight.MLA Mark Pollard confirmed that the issues with restarting the route involved the availability of jets, “ideally we would just start up the service as it was, which would be a wide body jet, direct from Sao Paulo to the Falklands stopping in Cordoba once a month there and once a month on the way back.“The issues we have at the moment are the fact that there aren’t any wide body jets available for some time.”A wide body jet would allow the option to offer both business and economy class seating. However MLA Pollard said the team at Development and Commercial Services (DCS) are looking at alternatives such as dealing with a narrow body jet, similar to the one that services the Punta Arenas route, and moving to a wide body jet when one becomes...

ESTHER Bertram and Nuala Knight made history on Tuesday when they became the first Falklands residents to swim across Falkland Sound. The dedicated pair have been training relentlessly for the cold 4.3km swim which was intended to be West to East but at the last moment became East to West due to unexpected easterly winds they told Penguin News this week.They explained that after some complex logistics magnificently organised by Myles Lee the night before everyone made it to Jersey Point where they met the Deligniers yacht Le Sourire on which they spent the night. Nuala said: “In the morning there was more chop on the water than anticipated… Huges and Marie Paul and Marilou (Deligniers family) said come and look at the sea.. asking do you want to consider doing it from the East.”The experienced team explained it would only take 20 minutes to cross and the decision was...

ThursdayBack in the olden days when I first started attending public meetings for Penguin News, it was immediately apparent that the most powerful lobbying group in the Islands, the Chamber of Commerce, essentially had the field to themselves. Indeed, election campaigns still have hustings just for them, which is such a weird thing for candidates to agree to.So I was pleased to see the General Employees Union engaging in a recruitment drive. The benefits you receive for £2 a month are potentially life-altering, not just for the worker but for the culture of the Islands, which can only benefit from finding a better balance between the interests of capital and the rights of the individual. On issues such as the minimum wage, employment rights and tenant’s rights, the Falklands has fallen badly behind.A strong union presence in the Islands does not have to mean confrontation. The union, I have no...

MondayYou know, I was looking at this Starlink business, and I’m not entirely onboard, because the internet is rubbish and ruins everything.We perfected technology at about the stage where we had VHS and books, but not everyone was forced to have a phone and a laptop to be able to perform the basic functions of a civil society. If you wanted to buy something you went to a shop. If you wanted to talk to a friend you rang, and if they weren’t home you tried again two weeks later.Movie nights meant going to the video rental place for an eighties action movie, and not the respectable ones that starred Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. You watched movies headlined by Chuck Norris and Michael Dudikoff and Cynthia Rothrock, and it made you a better person.Sundays were for the chart show on Radio One, and you sat there for three hours...

IN a surprise move the Falkland Islands Development Corporation (FIDC) was sent a bill totalling £35,690.47 from the Falkland Islands Government for fire fighting support on Sea Lion Island.The bill, which came from the Department of Emergency Services and Island Security (DESIS) was stated to be for half of the costs associated with the fire on Sea Lion Island which occurred after lightning strike in March.Discussed in the FIDC Board (FIDB) meeting on September 18, it was agreed that the invoice would be disputed and not paid. Chair of the FIDB Michael Poole explained that, “the intention is to not pay until FIG explain the policy,”Members of the board expressed their surprise that this invoice had come through, with Janet Robertson commenting, “a user-pays principle for fire support seems peculiar.”There is no breakdown of the costs in the invoice, which was reproduced in the FIDB agenda, or explanation as to...