Orkney passport?
SCOTTISH Parliament officials checking arrangements for a committee visit to Kirkwall asked whether MSPs would have to bring their passports, Orkney MSP Liam McArthur informs us. "This 'independence for Orkney' talk is clearly getting out of hand," he mused.
Squeamish FM
THE First Minister had a rough time of it when he visited a farm animal disease lab near Penicuik on Wednesday.
Not only were the media on his case over his qualified admiration for Vladimir Putin, he was also urged to peek down a microscope at some intestinal worms on leave from a sheep.
This revealed the FM to be a man with a distinctively squeamish side.
Twice he was pressed to ogle the writhing parasites, twice he declined.
Perhaps he regarded them as rivals for the little food he has left from his 5:2 diet.
Cartoon capers
TALKING of which, the FM's slimming regime seems to have made his skin thinner as well as looser.
The latest Private Eye reveals his spindoctor Campbell Gunn was recently despatched to bawl out a newspaper that had dared to print a cartoon of the FM in a courtroom witness box.
This was "almost actionable" said Gunn. It's so good to see the government keeping its sense of proportion through the referendum.
Clarke in PR boob
RED faces all round when a press release ahead of Tory minister Ken Clarke's visit to Scotland this week said that he would be highlighting the "benefits of leaving the Union".
It was quickly updated to highlighting just the "benefits of the Union".
Some backbench Tory MPs do privately believe that Scottish independence could be a good thing, for their party's battle against Labour at Westminster.
But a noted Unionist like Ken Clarke? That would be a surprise.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article