WHO could forget the lofty oratory of the SNP’s Pete Wishart 25 February 2015? “No SNP Member has a second job, a directorship or a place on a company,” he lectured the Commons, “our responsibilities here are our sole concern.” Well, er, it seems one Pete Wishart has forgotten. The latest register of interests reveals he trousered £2,265 last month for moonlighting as a musician on Dave TV. The name of the show? Believe it or not, Unspun.
THERE were many fond tales told about Tory MSP Alex Johnstone following his untimely death from cancer this week, but perhaps David Mundell’s best captured his indefatigable love of politics and mischief. Sensing a recent visit to the patient might well be their last meeting, the Scottish Secretary lowered his voice and gently asked if there was anything he could do for Alex and his wife Linda. “Aye,” nodded the big man thoughtfully. “Stick it up the Nats!”
ALEX’S legacy now passes into other hands, not least his possession of a license to collect bovine semen. Thankfully, two other Tory MSPs are registered “bull w*****s”, according to a senior party source, including Highland toff Sir Edward Brian Stanford Mountain. The multi-skilled baronet is also qualified to teach ceroc dancing. If only he could combine the two, a career in reality TV would surely beckon.
A LEAKED email arrives from North Lanarkshire Council, where Independent Alan O’Brien seems most unhappy about the SNP’s Rosa Zambonini choking his Inbox. Replying to her latest round robin, he asked the chief executive to block all spam from the councillor, who is known as Planks for her curious habit of pretending to be a plank on social media. (It was a craze, apparently). For good measure, Cllr O’Brien told his nemesis: “I know it might come as a surprise to you Rosa, but most us aren’t that interested in updates from planet Zambonini.”
PAISLEY MSP George Adam sponsored a lively Holyrood reception about his town’s bid to become UK City of Culture 2021 this week. But not half as lively as his chat with John Swinney on the subject, when Mr Adam cheekily asked the Perthshire MSP to throw his weight behind Paisley. As Mr Swinney is naturally backing Perth’s rival bid, this didn’t go down too well. “The reply,” reports our mole, “was not just brutal but anatomically impossible.”
FINALLY, news of Scottish Labour spindoctor Alan Roden, intriguingly spotted boozing this week with fellow Daily Mail alumnus Stuart Nicolson, now the FM’s top spinner. Actually, it’s more about Red Roddo's dad, the Rev John Roden of Appleton Roebuck, North Yorks. Unspun hears that a few years back, the Red Rev made UK-wide headlines after slagging off the Queen Mum as a non-entity who had done nothing in public life except be the “grandmother of an incredibly dysfunctional family”. His son, a salivating royalist, remains appalled to this day. As for Dad’s support of Jeremy Corbyn... Well, we won’t even mention that.
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 here