MSP Linda Fabiani was giving some Assembly members a Holyrood tour last week when she asked fellow Nat Christine Grahame if they could see her office. "Just a minute while I get my clothes on!" called back Ms Grahame. The visitors duly arrived and one joked about being rather disappointed that Ms Grahame was fully dressed. "So was it the Welsh Assembly they were from?" she asked afterwards. "Er no," replied Linda. "The General Assembly".
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AFTER finding fame as the most debate-averse candidate of the election, the SNP’s Fulton ‘No Show’ MacGregor continues to live down to his reputation. Besides being MSP for Coatbridge & Chryston, No Show is also a North Lanarkshire councillor. Not that you’d know it from his workload, mind you. Despite continuing to draw a councillor’s wage as a ‘double jobber’, he has cancelled all his council surgeries for June. Is No Show becoming No Shame?
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TALKING of double-jobbing North Lanarkshire SNP councillors, Unspun hears Wishaw’s Rosa Zambonini has landed a gig working for Cathcart MSP James Dornan.
Before being entering politics last year, Ms Zambonini was a devotee of ‘planking’, a fad that involves, er, pretending to be a plank. Her Facebook page shows her posing as a plank on a wall, on a metal sign, and on a warehouse shelf. No doubt it’s how she acquired the moniker ‘planks’ from colleagues.
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TONY Blair enjoyed himself at an event in Westminster this week when he was ‘in conversation’ with Prospect magazine.
But the former Prime Minister was slightly flummoxed by one question – over US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump.
He joked with the invited audience: "I'm trying to think how to avoid the question... I'm a bit out of practise."
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A TAXPAYER-FUNDED initiation programme for Holyrood's new parliamentarians has been branded a 'freshers week for MSPs' by critics. The description looks to have been overly generous.
It seems parliament chiefs in fact thought it more appropriate to replicate the first year of primary school, rather than university, in helping our new £60,000-a-year legislators adapt their new surroundings.
Each of the 51 newbies has been allocated a parliamentary staffer as a 'buddy' to guide them through those scary first weeks. The parliament prefers to call them 'orientation guides' and said they had been allocated to help the wee souls "assume their new duties as quickly as possible."
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SIR David Edward, the distinguished former European Court judge, made an eloquent case for Britain remaining in the EU during a lunch organised by the Scottish Parliamentary Journalists’ Association.
As it traditional at SPJA bashes, Holyrood hacks had the opportunity to ask few questions after his speech.
The courtesy is not extended to invited guests but that did not deter David Coburn, UKIP’s Scottish leader, who tried to challenge him about minimum alcohol pricing.
The 81-year-old lawyer was impressively well informed about the rules. "You’re not allowed to ask a question, Mr Coburn," he said before moving swiftly on.
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