IS Alex Salmond’s LBC phone-in starting to wane in popularity? This week’s was padded out by a call from one Chris of Westminster, who asked the former FM for his thoughts on DWP helplines charging 45p a minute. Chris, it turned out, was Chris Stephens, the SNP MP for Glasgow South West, who had asked Theresa May about the same issue just hours before.
LATE news just in from the Politician of the Year Awards, where ex-Labour leader Johann Lamont won the E-Politician gong for her Tweets. She ribbed Tory runners-up Adam Tomkins and Murdo Fraser in her speech using the Twitter-lingo “hashtag clamped”. Unfortunately, to everyone else others on stage, this sounded uncannily like “you c****”. Including to the signer for the deaf, who duly informed the room the two MSPs were indeed just that.
TALKING of the awards, One to Watch winner Alex Cole-Hamilton has been showing his rebellious side at Holyrood. Ok, he’s been using an “Anarchy in the UK” credit card, but it’s pretty out there for a LibDem. Incidentally, it seems ACH may be the last One to Watch winner. Given the police inquiry into his election expenses, it’s now been dubbed One to Catch.
SNP youth leader Rory Steel leader made headlines earlier this year by saying cadet school units churned out “cannon fodder” and Army recruiters “preyed” on the poor. As the top brass snorted into their brandies, Rory retreated to his bunker. Now we hear he’s back in action. As vice-convener of Young Scots for Independence, he’s just bagged a seat on the SNP’s ruling national executive committee. Expect incoming shells from armchair generals everywhere.
LABOUR spin doctor and diary mainstay Alan Roden has many quirks. But the oddest is his toddler-like inability to tie shoelaces, forcing him to wear slip-ons and velcro-wear. Last week Red Roddo was sent a photo of a van for Easy Lace, the stretchy silicon laces for “turning your shoes into slip-ons with no fuss”. Don’t blame us. “A politician sent me this!” he wails.
MSPs on the Education Committee went large on E this week. Specifically, the “Experiences and Outcomes” expected of pupils under Curriculum for Excellence, or Es and Os in teacher slang. It prompted the SNP’s Richard Lochhead to tell fellow MSPs: “One thing I have learned in this committee is what Es and Os stand for. I used to think it was a pop song by Pulp.” We assume he was having a flashback to the Britpop classic Sorted for Es and Whizz.
ONE of the perks of being an MSP is that you can change Holyrood’s official report if you say something particularly dim. Tory newbie Annie Wells is learning fast. She recently told the chamber she was concerned that 402,000 young Scots aged 16-24 are not in education, jobs or training. Pretty shocking, as that would be two-thirds of them. A correction has just appeared. Ms Wells is now equally concerned to learn it was 23,000.
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 here