NICOLA Sturgeon and John Swinney unveiled the SNP's eagerly awaited income tax plans at the medi-cinema at the new Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow. A brilliant facility, it played host to Santa's grotto at Christmas. But any hopes of an SNP giveaway were quickly dashed. The Chancellor's heft tax cut for higher earners will not be passed on, the First Minister announced.
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Adam Tomkins, the academic and Tory candidate, played the role of Willie Rennie in Ruth Davidson's rehearsals for the BBC's first leaders' debate of the election campaign. After the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader came a cropper over his party's fracking policies, the Glasgow University constitutional expert, tweeted that he did a better job of being Willie Rennie than Willie Rennie.
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David Coburn, UKIP's MEP for Scotland, appeared to have prepared less thoroughly for the telly showdown, confusing the issue of welfare with the NHS. That said, he played the role of reactionary controversialist panto villain to perfection. He breezed into the press afterwards asking if anyone wanted to interview him. No-one did.
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Mr Coburn's appearance on our screens may prove to be a fleeting cameo. He's not been invited to appear on STV's debate on Tuesday, nor the BBC's second showdown a few days before the polls. To make matters worse, sources at Vote Leave, one of the groups campaigning for the UK to leave the EU, say they will freeze him out if the organisation is designated the official 'out' campaign in the June 23 referendum.
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The SNP chose not to mark 'independence day,' the day Alex Salmond had pencilled in for Scotland's exit from the UK in the event of a Yes vote 18 months ago, which fell on Thursday. That did not stop lots of speculation about what might have been. Among those who indulged in a little crystal ball gazing was Alex Salmond who imagined a newly independent Scotland denied a currency union with the rest of the UK. So George Osborne hadn't been bluffing, then. Mr Salmond went into quite some detail about the new Scottish Central Bank that would be needed to replace the Bank of England, appointing economist John Kay as its head. Professor Kay, you'll recall, believed an independent Scotland would end up with its own currency. He even suggested a name: the bawbee.
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