MSP Richard Lyle couldn’t chair his monthly SNP branch meeting in Bellshill on Monday, but luckily he had a cunning plan - he sent his parliamentary assistant, Jordan Linden, to do it for him. Alas, this didn’t go down well with the locals, especially when the baby-faced gopher tried to block contentious votes. As the mood darkened, a whimpering Linden rapidly backed down, however, sources tell Unspun. Still, it wasn’t as chaotic as Lyle’s previous branch meeting. That had to be suspended after a fight nearly broke out and the police were called.

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Christine Grahame has developed a reputation as one of the more independently minded of the SNP's Holyrood backbenchers (not that there's a huge amount of competition).

And this week, she couldn't be dissuaded by Justice Secretary Michael Matheson from pushing an amendment to the Government's Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill.

She forced a vote on her proposal regarding police interviews at the Justice Committee, rejecting Mr Matheson's pleas with typically colourful language. "I regret to say that, as you know cabinet secretary, I remain a difficult customer. This is another bee in my bonnet - it is a big bonnet with lots of bees in it. I will press my amendment."

Even Mr Matheson had to smile - but not for long. While the three other SNP members on the committee went against the proposal, Ms Grahame won her vote with the help of Labour, Liberal Democrat and independent MSPs.

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Some Tory MPs who received an invitation to the upcoming launch of a new book by their former Coalition colleague Vince Cable are rather less than enthusiastic about attending. One sniffs: "I won't be able to make it, as I will be working on important business in the House of Commons. Not something Vince has to worry about any more, of course".

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Gordon McCaskill, the Tory group leader on East Renfrewshire Council, was suspended by his party this week after suggesting he would like to see Isis moles infiltrate Nicola Sturgeon's home.

The councillor, who deleted the offending remarks on Twitter which had followed the First Minister's offer to house a refugee, was uncharacteristically silent on the social network as his comments caused widespread condemnation.

But he has now moved to explain himself in his local newspaper. The politician, who describes himself as a 'bon vivant, raconteur and wit,' told the paper his tweet was "intended as ridicule which, by definition, might be considered in poor taste as opposed to bad taste, and follows a long tradition of political ridicule extending back to caricaturists Gillray and Rowlandson."

Maybe he should stick to 140 characters after all.

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Even politicians have hobbies. For Stewart Stevenson it is genealogy. The SNP backbencher has been researching his family tree for more than five decades and has traced around 5,000 relations.

So a bill over laws of succession, currently being examined by Holyrood's delegated powers committee which the affable Mr Stevenson sits on, is far more interesting to the member for Banffshire and Buchan Coast than to the typical man on the street.

Indeed, this week, after hearing expert evidence on the practicalities of the law, he sprung out of his seat and began regaling the witnesses with his own achievements in lineage tracing.

Nigel Don, the committee convenor, was forced to physically drag the enthusiastic 68-year-old away as the experts made a hasty escape.