IT’S a week since he said it, but self-love expert Willie Rennie is still getting it raw from colleagues over his Freudian slip on BBC Sunday Politics, we hear. In a classic moment, the LibDem leader said of elections: “I absolutely love them. I love getting out. I don’t know if you could tell from last May’s elections, I loved myself. Sorry... an unfortunate slip.” You think?
GREAT minds think alike, runs the standard denial for plagiarism. So Ruth Davidson and Kezia Dugdale must be telepathically linked. A fortnight ago, the Labour leader told the David Hume Institute the SNP was using government “as a bully pulpit”. Lo and behold, last week the Tory leader told the DHI the SNP was using “the language of the bully pulpit”. Fancy that!
RUTH Davidson’s DHI turn was predictably slick, until the final question of the Q&A. “Would you hold hands with Donald Trump?” asked one punter, referring to Theresa May’s recent grip on the orange President. “Er, I find it unlikely I would be put in a position where I had to find out,” she spluttered, admitting it was her most “politician-like” answer of the night.
GOOD news for smooth-limbed spindoctor Alan ‘Lady Arms’ Roden. Reinforcements are arriving at Labour HQ. Andrew Liddle, the bowtie-n-braces wearing political corr of the P&J is joining the press operation. Red Roddo used to work at the Daily Mail. But Andrew’s grandfather used to edit the Dandy. Can the two ever agree which was the best comic?
MR Liddle’s sideline in books may raise a few Corbynista eyebrows. In 2015 he knocked out Nigel Farage in His Own Words, which called the then Ukip leader “Witty, biting, cutting and outrageous… a lone splash of colour in an era of montone political leaders”. His next book is out in April. Ruth Davidson and the Resurgence of the Scottish Tories charts how this “very impressive young politician” has “revitalised the toxic Tory brand”. Oops.
BACKFIRE of the week was in the budget debate, as Tory Murdo Fraser spouted off about the Laffer Curve. At which Nat Ivan McKee tested Mr Fraser’s knowledge of the economic model: “For a single peak Laffer curve with a point of inflection where dR/dt equals zero, are we in the range where dR/dt is greater or less than zero - or does his understanding extend only to soundbites?” A flummoxed Murdo replied: “Unfortunately, I couldn’t hear the question.”
SNP Brexit minister Michael Russell was at a breakfast debate on Friday hosted by the Times. Perhaps his porridge was cold, but he took a pop at his host. That day’s headline on the SNP budget was “misleading” he sniffed, to the discomfort of the paper’s execs. Fellow debater Michael Gove was more cordial. Although he did put the black spot on Ruth Davidson, tipping his fellow Tory as the next First Minister. Given how Mr Gove’s own leadership run panned out, we suspect Ms Davidson won’t be asking for career advice any time soon.
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