It's a hard life being a minister

Look, not every ministerial trip overseas is an excuse for first class travel, wining and dining and all that. Why should this trip, as discussed in The Evening News, be dismissed as just a jolly?

"PARLIAMENT minister Margaret Curran will visit New Zealand next week to strengthen Scottish links Down Under.
The seven-day trip starts in Wellington, where she will meet senior politicians and officials and watch parliament in action.
Then Ms Curran will move on to Edinburgh's twin city of Dunedin, where she hopes to build on existing links.
She will finish up in Auckland, where her engagements include meetings with business leaders. Ms Curran is taking advantage of the Scottish Parliament's October recess to boost Scotland's relations with a country where in the mid 19th century Scots made up as much as a quarter of the population."

And, given that Parliament is again on holiday for the next two weeks, ministers have got to fill in their time somehow.