Four op-eds reached the Editor's Network this week from four of the Kingdom's louder pens, and four of them argued, with variously arranged furniture, that the other three are responsible for the state of the pier. The Leader of the Opposition, Renko, writes of the hantavirus and of what he takes to be the Crown's incompetence. Don Rafael, leading the Nationalists, writes of discipline in the face of sickness and disorder. P. Ferré writes of the grammar of official reassurance, which he reads, as he reads most grammars, with suspicion. His Eminence the Cardenal writes of charity.

One of the four will be printed in full on the facing page. The other three have been summarised here, in the interest of space and, frankly, of the reader's patience. Renko, from the steps of Parliament on Thursday morning, asked how many families were sitting in waiting rooms not knowing whether their own would be counted in next week's bulletin. It is a fair question and one the Port Sanitation Council's contact-tracing teams are, at this hour, working to answer.

Don Rafael's line — that a kingdom is judged by the order it keeps when the sea grows uncivil — will find its constituency. Ferré's caution against the soothing cadences of ministerial communiqués will find his. The newspaper prints the Cardenal because the Cardenal does not ask to be printed, which is a qualification the other three have not, this week, managed between them.

Monday's fuel vote will clarify whatever it clarifies. Until then, four men have said four things, and the pier is still sealed.