A press release popped into our in-boxes the other day headed: "Christian Allard réponse à Murdo Fraser." "Oh non," we all thought. "It's in French."

 

The indecipherable communique conveyed M Allard's disappointment at Mr Fraser's undiplomatic observation, made during a committee hearing about language teaching, that "nobody in the world speaks French".

"La langue française est parlée en Ecosse et dans de nombreux pays , j' invite Monsieur Fraser à s'inscrire aux cours de français à la Institut Français, un petit coin de France au cœur d'Édimbourg," said M Allard.

M Allard saw fit to include a translation in his press release, which rather proved Mr Fraser's point.

But at least we could be reasonably confident Holyrood's French-born MSP had said something like: "French is spoken in Scotland and in many countries, I invite Monsieur Fraser to sign up to French classes at the "Institut Français", the little corner of France in the heart of Edinburgh."

Well, if Mr Fraser felt a little chastened, embarrassed even, it was nothing compared with the ribbing he received during First Minister's Questions when - sacre bleue! none other than the French Ambassador to the UK, Mme Sylvie Bermann, took her seat in the VIP gallery.

As protocol dictates, she was welcomed by the Presiding Officer and duly rose, smiling to acknowledge the warm applause from the chamber. Not everyone was smiling, though. Oh no. Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson and deputy Jackson Carlaw were laughing their heads off. In a gesture which perhaps betrayed a greater knowledge of communicating in French than he admits to, Mr Fraser shrugged.

Malheureusement, this was the highlight of FMQs. All too soon, Scottish Labour Deputy leader Kezia Dugdale was challenging Nicola Sturgeon over the "crisis" in the health service. A stern First Minister explained things were better than they were when Labour left office eight years ago. Ms Dugdale declared that a "dire" defence. Preposterously, Ms Sturgeon accused her of denigrating the efforts of hardworking NHS staff by listing problems in the health services raised by...NHS staff. The pair then traded statistics until the Presiding Officer told them to break it up. We wandered away with more than a faint sense of - you guessed it - déjà vu.