Here are some short takes on recent news events:

There's something surreal about the Warwick South East by-election.

Last week the candidates for the Opposition United Bermuda Party, Devrae Noel-Simmons, and the Bermuda Democratic Alliance, Sylvan Richards, challenged the Progressive Labour Party Government candidate Marc Bean to take a drug test.

Why is that surreal? First, because Mr Noel-Simmons has a relatively recent drugs conviction, so it's curious to see him making an issue out of Mr Bean's refusal, even though it was important for him to show that he was clean.

But Mr Bean's reaction was just as strange. Rather than just taking the test and showing he was clean, Mr Bean refused, saying it was not parliamentary policy to take drug tests. Did Mr Bean forget it that it was the very PLP MPs he wishes to join who made that policy? Why not say you're going to take the test and encourage your colleagues to do the same? Instead, Mr Bean looks like he is hiding something when that is almost certainly not the case.

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In the meantime, Mr Noel-Simmons' selection as the candidate seems to be causing new ructions within the UBP.

Leaving aside his unusual hairstyle and conviction, it is not entirely clear why Mr Noel-Simmons was selected or who his competition was. If Opposition Leader Kim Swan was trying to show that this is not the "old UBP" he ran a big risk that the party could end up coming third.

At the same time, the selection appears to have been made despite a good deal of internal opposition, which for a party which has already lost five out of its 14 MPs since 2007, seems rash. Coupled with the demotion of Sen. Michael Dunkley, the UBP is suffering another crisis of leadership and confidence. In this case, the winners look like the PLP and the BDA.

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Congratulations are due to the Bermuda College, which last week announced it had been accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

Although Bermuda College credits have been recognised by different colleges and universities in the US for decades, accreditation means that they will now be universally recognised which will make it easier for students to transfer to US and Canadian universities.

It also means that qualifications and degrees from the College are also of an accepted standard, which will make it easier for graduates to find work or go on to further degree work.

The large number of children with behavioural disorders – and the phenomenal cost of treating them abroad in the absence of suitable programmes in Bermuda – should shock those residents who do not have direct contact with children and teenagers.

There seems to be some consensus that the numbers are higher than the norm for a community of this size and there needs to be more research done on why this is the case.

At the same time, there should be a feasibility study conducted on whether more of the services and treatments needed can be done in Bermuda. It may be that it would cost more in Bermuda, or that there are other benefits to taking these children out of the Bermuda environment, but more analysis is needed.

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When meetings are held today on the rising cost of health care, it is to be hoped that the stunning rise in revenue at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital is taken into account.

The hospital took in $40 million or 16 percent more in 2009 than it did in 2008, according to Health Minister Zane DeSilva, who was answering questions from MP Grant Gibbons in the House of Assembly on Friday.

And its surplus rose from $8.8 million to $18 million. It is quite right that the BHB should post a surplus, especially as it starts building the new hospital. But there is no conceivable way that demand for health services rose by 16 percent in one year, and at a time when incomes are squeezed and health insurance premiums are already high, there's no rationale for this kind of rise.