Welcome to the first issue of a new, occasional feature of short pieces in a diary format.

I watched part of the American Vice-Presidency debate last night.

Today I sat through a TV summary with the sound turned off. I find you can catch more of the psychological quirks and nuances if you cut out the noise.

A voiceless Sarah Palin seemed animated, keen and fresh, while old Joe Biden looked like a ghost. His age is much more apparent than McCain’s.

On balance, I would give it to Palin because she had a mountain to scale and she did it.

Who would I vote for? I never vote for ghosts.

I note Peter Mandelson is back in the British Cabinet as a reward for his worldwide experience. His Sarah Palin moment, they say.

Now remind me what he did for four years in the European Commission?

Ah, yes, he presided over the failure of the Dohar Round of world trade talks. He had a blistering feud with President Sarkozy — poignant memories of home, perhaps. He also helped Tony Blair and the German Presidency engineer the Lisbon treaty as a referendum-free zone. And there was that funny incident when European ports were piled high with Chinese shoes.

I can’t help thinking a hockey mom would have done better.

Amazingly, Syntagma will be three years old on the 20th of this month. In the constantly-changing kaleidoscope that is the internet I never thought it would last this long.

At the very least, I supposed I would sell it on before tackling something else. In the event, I am doing other things, but the old warhorse is still breathing fire — if less brimstone these days.

So, will there be wild celebrations and dancing in the street? ‘Fraid not, alas.

These are very different times compared with the heady economic climate back in 2005 when we started out.

Then “new media networks”, as we grandiosely called ourselves, were the lipstick on the pitbull. Everyone adored us — we were to be the new generation of Beaverbrooks and Northcliffes (ancient British newspaper proprietors). One of our brethren even sold itself to AOL for around $30 million. We were Masters of the Pixelated Universe.

In fact, the Murdochs and Gates’s, with MySpace and Spaces, used the technology to reinforce their offline dominance. New media turned out to be the saviour of old media.

As a result, advertising deserted the small-to-medium online operator, although you can still make a six-figure individual income if you know all the tricks.

At the moment new media is suffering a hiatus like everything else, while jumpy politicians sort out the credit drought and its ghastly knock-on effects. I must say, I thought we would be in a better place on our third birthday.

Never mind, there’s still 17 days to go.

At the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham this week, Tory bigwigs were ordered not to drink champagne in the bars in case it was interpreted as premature triumphalism.

What did the rascals do? They replaced the conspicuous champagne flutes with paper cups, from which they consumed prodigious quantities of the bubbly stuff.

With enterprise like that, they are definitely ready for a return to Government.

John Evans