Well, I have used that title for a post already, I think, but the week that has just gone by can definitely lay claim to have been the longest and the toughest since I took up the cudgels on 1 October – now almost ten months ago. I don’t mean the hours – always in before eight never out before ten – though they have surely taken their toll. Nor do I mean the sheer quantity and quality of meetings – notably, directors, pre-session, enlarged presidency, Bureau, press conference, heavily charged plenary session (see separate posts), London  – though they certainly kept me on my toes. I suppose I mean that there were some very fraught occasions this week – par for the course, no doubt, for SGs, but until now a relative rarity for this one. Suffice it to say that when I got home from the station on the Friday evening it felt a little like what I imagine war correspondents feel like when they travel back to the peaceful world from a war zone! I have learnt a huge amount this week and will doubtless be all the stronger for that in the future.