Party pooper

WELL, that was dramatic. Ruth Davidson resigning as Scottish Tory leader. We were both speakers at a Burns Supper last year, and she was great company. I didn't give her a bad time for leaving before I gave The Toast to the Lassies as she had to get back to Edinburgh. But secretly I was thinking even then that she was a quitter. And, yes, thanks to all the readers who got in touch to say: "That just confirms the Scottish Tories are ruthless."

Anyway we pass on the observation of journalist Tom Peck: "A terrible shame Ruth Davidson has decided she cannot balance the commitments of both a political career and a family. Boris Johnson manages it, and he has at least three."

On to plums

WE asked about dealing with pesky phone-calls, and Jim Nicol in Lenzie says that the last time he was asked if he had been involved in an accident he asked: "I bruised my plums coming back from the supermarket, does that count?"

He adds: "Seemingly having an 'accident' on the train because the toilet is out of use doesn't count either."

Ruff

WE reckon a lot of dog owners will identify with the Dumbarton reader who tells us: "I never feel more guilty than trying to explain to my dog why she smells another dog off me."

Going Wild

THE BBC has announced that it will be filming Glasgow scriptwriter Nicole Taylor's drama The Nest in the city next month with Martin Compston and Sophie Rundle in the main roles. Nicole's most recent success was the Glasgow-based country singer film Wild Rose which had a scene filmed at the Silverburn shopping centre where star Jessie Buckley was supposed to have a job as a cleaner. Unfortunately permission to film there had not come through so Jessie walked in and started wiping down cafe tables while they filmed her through the window, until the cafe manger came over and tersely asked: "What are you doing?"

Coining it

TALKING of movies, a reader was musing the other day: "Why have I never seen a film where someone waits for their change from the taxi driver?"

Swinger

A POSTSCRIPT to the Edinburgh Festivals where Alison Campbell tells us that our old chum writer and journalist Roddy Martine was a guest on the chat show that Christopher Biggins fronted at the Fringe. Roddy, and you have to bear in mind that he wrote the light-hearted book about country dancing entitled The Swinging Sporran, so keep that garb in mind, got a big laugh from the crowd, says Alison, for explaining how you can detect a Scottish gentleman. It’s the dandruff on his shoes, apparently.

Needled

A GLASGOW reader tells us tattoos were being discussed in his local pub, with one toper arguing that too many tattoos can affect your chances of getting a job. However another drinker argued the opposite, claiming: "Tattoos should make you more employable because it shows you can sit for hours while tiny needles are jammed into your skin, and that's what every company meeting I've been to has felt like."

Well trained

BRINGING up teenagers, continued. Says a Jordanhill reader: "My son whined that he couldn't find his trainers. I said I didn't know where they were, but he should look upstairs. He actually replied that OK he would Google stairs, but didn't see how that was going to help."