For anyone who cares about Shet­land the Accounts Commission report into the events of the last year in the Town Hall could not make happy reading. Its contents will doubtless be well reported elsewhere in these pages so I do not intend to rehearse them here beyond saying that there was not much in it that has not already been predicted.

The House of Commons witnessed a small piece of history last week when Nick Clegg stood at the des­patch box in the chamber and ans­wered questions at Prime Minister’s Question Time.

The lunchtime reception to launch the Annual Report of the Crown Estate Commissioners is usually one of the grander invitations to land on my desk each year.

Life in a coalition government may be many things but it is rarely if ever going to be boring! Exhausting pos­sibly but never boring.

Tuesday this week saw me attending cabinet for the first time since I was appointed as Liberal Democrat chief whip and the government deputy chief whip.

The pictures coming from the Gulf of Mexico showing the aftermath of the BP rig Deep Horizon oil spill have not been off our television screens for long over the last few weeks and I am sure that for many local people it will have brought back memories of the grounding of the Braer.

The State Opening of Parliament is always one of the ceremonial extra­vaganzas of the parliamentary year and this year’s was no exception.

You might expect this column to be all about the national politics of the last few days but let me first do the important stuff.

In years gone by the opportunity of a budget this close to the start of a general election campaign would normally signal a spending spree as the government of the day lavished money on whichever group of the community they were most keen to ingratiate themselves with.

In my time as MP for Orkney and Shetland I have made it my business to take an interest in shipping matters. Remarkably few MPs do but as a representative of island communities in a parliament of an island nation it has always been something of a no-brainer for me.

A former Lerwick optician is suing his estranged wife and erstwhile business partner for more than £800,000, claiming that her actions after they went their separate ways six years ago effectively left him out of work.

New SIC chief executive Alistair Buchan came face to face with all councillors this week for the first time since taking up the post for what he described as “very positive” initial discussions about how to react to major criticisms in the Accounts Commission’s recent report on the local authority.

Multiple Grammy winner Steve Earle, the outspoken singer-song­writer responsible for a host of classic Americana songs including Copperhead Road, Guitar Town and Galway Girl, will be stopping off in Lerwick next Thursday for a re-arranged show at Clickimin.