Selfie? Moi?

MUCH consternation in the media pack at COP26 after Nicola Sturgeon was asked why she’d spent the last two weeks posing for photos there instead of being at Holyrood while the NHS burns. “I don’t pose with anybody,” the First Selfie-Taker replied haughtily. At which reporters checked her Twitter feed and found that, no doubt accidentally, she’d been snapped with almost 30 leaders and celebrities since the start of COP.

Stage Frightful

STILL, at least she’s not as desperate as media glutton Humza Yousaf. The official list of Scottish Government events at COP said the Health Secretary would be at the Climate Action for Health Event on Tuesday. “Great to be at COP26,” he tweeted later. The only snag was he never spoke at the event – he just sat in the audience and gawped. He did make it onto a bare stage at one point though... for a photo-op.

What’s in a name?

IT was also a bad week for pronunciation at COP26. Former US president Barack Obama launched into a blizzard of gaffes by declaring himself in the “Emerald Isles” and quoting the not so local bard, William Shakespeare. He then capped it with references to Glaz-gow, rhyming with it Moz-cow. US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi kept up the Russian theme by introducing the First Minister as Nik-ola Sturgeon. We suspect the FM much preferred the Catalan President, who repeatedly called her “Prime Minister”.

Knickers to that

ALSO at COP26, and actually doing things, are thousands of police officers drafted in from around the country to savour the Glasgow chill. Public records show police bosses spent a tidy £500,000 on packed lunches for them at COP26. But even more welcome, we reckon, was another big official buy – £60,000 of “thermal undergarments”.

Ring of truth

WEST Aberdeenshire Tory MP Andrew Bowie made headlines this week when he quit as party vice chair to spend more time in his constituency. A Tory MP with one job? It’ll never catch on. The news leaked while he was at a party fundraiser in a swanky London hotel sitting with Rishi Sunak. As everyone’s phone went off, guests began staring at Mr Bowie, who was quite clueless about the fuss. He then checked his own mobile and saw missed calls from the chief whip, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack and Michael Gove. He was, we hear, “mortified”. Again, so unTorylike.

Stare well

WEIRD scenes at Holyrood when SNP parliamentary business minister George Adam tried to take part via videolink. When asked by deputy Presiding Officer Liam McArthur to move a motion in his name, the screen cut to a dead-eyed Mr Adam in his office looking like a shark in an aquarium. It fell to Green MSP Gillian Mackay to act in his place. “Thank you very much,” said the DPO. “You managed to do it with much less of a stern stare, I have to say.” He’ll get daggers for that.

Hair apparent

BRIAN Taylor’s Podcast for The Herald saw MSPs discuss the youth climate protests this week. SNP newbie Elena Whitham revealed she sported a “mohawk and purple hair” in her teenage years. But that proved tame next to Labour old hand Claire Baker. “I did have a skinhead,” she confessed. “I had a Sinéad O’Connor haircut when I was much younger.” Well, Nothing Compares 2 That.