THERE were howls of derision in the Commons chamber during the week as George Osborne appeared to call the SNP the "Scottish Nationalist Party". Is the Chancellor out of touch or has he been discussing Scottish politics with Jack, now Lord, McConnell? That's how the former first minister always used to refer to the Nats.
///
THE SNP dutifully stepped in to defend Alex Salmond after he told Small Business Minister Anna Soubry to "behave yourself, woman," in a Commons debate. "There is no place for sexism in the House of Commons - and this was not an example of it," said an SNP spokeswoman. Do others agree? The campaign group Women for Independence has been unusually quiet on the issue.
///
Holyrood's French MSP Christian Allard used a debate on Scotland's booze problem to praise Tennents for launching a non-alcoholic beer named Hee Haw.
Inevitably, perhaps, the sound of a Frenchman pronouncing the words "hee haw" proved too much for Jackson Carlaw.
"I looked out for the beret and some onions," quipped the Tory MSP.
///
The Government has taken cold feet about MPs receiving a 10 per cent wage rise and asked the independent pay body IPSA to have rethink. Bookies are taking bets on what happens next. Paddy Power reckons the lure of the lucre will prove too great to resist. The bookmaker is quoting odds of 4/6 that the increase goes through as planned and 3/1 that 100 MPs or more give their pay rise to charity.
///
Of all the tributes to Charles Kennedy one of the warmest came from his favourite London curry house, the Kennington Tandoori. A notice in the restaurant, a popular haunt with politicos, described the former Lib Dem leader as a "good neighbour". "Pause for a moment to remember his curry-fuelled witticisms," the touching tribute added.
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 hereComments are closed on this article