ALEX Salmond was at his modest best in Brussels this week, merely comparing himself to a hero of the French Revolution. Accepting a gong from a think tank, the former FM thanked his host thus: “You spoke about my perseverance. You might have added audace, audace, toujours l’audace.” This was a mangled version of Georges Danton’s famous cry “Il nous faut de l'audace, et encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace", or “We need audacity, and yet more audacity, and always audacity”. Monsieur Danton’s big gob, we note, got him guillotined.
MR Salmond is also a frequent visitor to Euroland as a member of the Westminster delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a cosy junket that meet four times a year in Strasbourg. The SNP’s Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh is also a member. Now Labour’s sole Scottish MP, Ian Murray, is joining the club. Our mole tells us he can’t wait to see how Eck and his ex-Tory protegee go about “grandstanding on the European stage”. As if...
REGULAR readers wondering if we’re too harsh on Labour spindoctor Alan Roden can rest easy. We’re so not. On Tuesday he was the guest of one Glasgow tabloid in the morning, and landed a bottle a pink champagne. Then in the evening, bottle drained, he was the guest of another paper at the SECC Hydro for Rod Stewart. Judging by his Santa-coloured face the morning after, the theme of the day wasn’t so much “We are Sailing” as “I am flying”.
TALKING of hangovers, we fear the Scottish Government is exploiting the fragile seasonal state of Holyrood’s press corps. Not only was the budget held the day after the hacks’ Xmas night out, when the last thing folk wanted was a blizzard of statistics, but next week’s big Brexit plan is the day after a famously lavish lunch and Labour’s media bash, so the nuances of EU diplomacy may suffer in the ensuing fog. Please! Show a little charity at Christmas.
THE budget also shone a fresh light on the SNP’s Fulton ‘No Show’ MacGregor, hitherto best known at Holyrood for dodging election hustings in Coatbridge. It seems he has a new talent -sycophancy. After Derek Mackay delivered his statement, No Show asked him to autograph his copy of the budget. Not one to disappoint a toady, the Finance Secretary duly obliged.
THE funeral of the much loved Tory MSP Alex Johnstone took place yesterday at Glenbervie. But Alex being Alex, it wasn’t an entirely sombre affair. As Ruth Davidson pointed out in her eulogy: "He mandated that his funeral be held on a Friday, when the parliament wasn’t sitting, so the SNP wouldn’t win any votes while Tories were here." A whip to the very end.
NOT all Ms Davidson’s events go as smoothly. On Monday she pitched up at a festive charity shop in Glasgow where Nicola Sturgeon and Judy Murray were helping out for the cameras. However it seems the Tory leader wasn’t meant to be there until Tuesday. Awkward.
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