IS Alex Salmond’s LBC phone-in starting to wane in popularity? This week’s was padded out by a call from one Chris of Westminster, who asked the former FM for his thoughts on DWP helplines charging 45p a minute. Chris, it turned out, was Chris Stephens, the SNP MP for Glasgow South West, who had asked Theresa May about the same issue just hours before.

LATE news just in from the Politician of the Year Awards, where ex-Labour leader Johann Lamont won the E-Politician gong for her Tweets. She ribbed Tory runners-up Adam Tomkins and Murdo Fraser in her speech using the Twitter-lingo “hashtag clamped”. Unfortunately, to everyone else others on stage, this sounded uncannily like “you c****”. Including to the signer for the deaf, who duly informed the room the two MSPs were indeed just that.

TALKING of the awards, One to Watch winner Alex Cole-Hamilton has been showing his rebellious side at Holyrood. Ok, he’s been using an “Anarchy in the UK” credit card, but it’s pretty out there for a LibDem. Incidentally, it seems ACH may be the last One to Watch winner. Given the police inquiry into his election expenses, it’s now been dubbed One to Catch.

SNP youth leader Rory Steel leader made headlines earlier this year by saying cadet school units churned out “cannon fodder” and Army recruiters “preyed” on the poor. As the top brass snorted into their brandies, Rory retreated to his bunker. Now we hear he’s back in action. As vice-convener of Young Scots for Independence, he’s just bagged a seat on the SNP’s ruling national executive committee. Expect incoming shells from armchair generals everywhere.

LABOUR spin doctor and diary mainstay Alan Roden has many quirks. But the oddest is his toddler-like inability to tie shoelaces, forcing him to wear slip-ons and velcro-wear. Last week Red Roddo was sent a photo of a van for Easy Lace, the stretchy silicon laces for “turning your shoes into slip-ons with no fuss”. Don’t blame us. “A politician sent me this!” he wails.

MSPs on the Education Committee went large on E this week. Specifically, the “Experiences and Outcomes” expected of pupils under Curriculum for Excellence, or Es and Os in teacher slang. It prompted the SNP’s Richard Lochhead to tell fellow MSPs: “One thing I have learned in this committee is what Es and Os stand for. I used to think it was a pop song by Pulp.” We assume he was having a flashback to the Britpop classic Sorted for Es and Whizz.

ONE of the perks of being an MSP is that you can change Holyrood’s official report if you say something particularly dim. Tory newbie Annie Wells is learning fast. She recently told the chamber she was concerned that 402,000 young Scots aged 16-24 are not in education, jobs or training. Pretty shocking, as that would be two-thirds of them. A correction has just appeared. Ms Wells is now equally concerned to learn it was 23,000.