Demo dud
PATRICK Harvie is a modest soul with much to be modest about. One can only imagine how he felt as his name rang out at FMQs as a protestor begged him to intervene to save some Glasgow tower blocks under threat of demolition. Anas Sarwar, who had been speaking, was livid, especially as he’d been speaking about the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. “To disrupt when we’re speaking about the lives lost…” he tutted, leading to a round of applause from MSPs. Including, Unspun’s mole reports, one wholly unpersuaded Mr Harvie. Maybe try email in future.
Lift trip
THE walls of the Holyrood lifts carry posters promoting forthcoming talks for MSPs. The current one features events on wellbeing economies and the future of education. All very mundane. However February 22 brings a gathering called “Indigenous apothecary: psychedelic medicine for healing”. It’s unclear if there will be a tasting session to accompany the theory, but we wouldn’t advise it. Most of our politicians think they’re God almighty already.
Thigh master
THE parliament also regularly hosts displays and exhibits about good causes. The World Cycling Championships were this week plugging their arrival in Scotland in August. MSPs were encouraged to take part in a friendly time trial on an advanced cycling machine. Most had a leisurely pedal, but keep fit fan Neil Gray got so carried away he ripped a trouser leg from top to toe. The SNP culture minister was said by one riveted observer to own “thighs of steel”. Blimey.
Drinking dame
THE break for February recess saw a rush to the bar by many hard-pressed party staffers on Thursday. But alas nothing to match the last recess booze up. When Holyrood stopped for Christmas, we hear one SNP MSP was so stewed in festive spirit that she followed a Labour MSP into the gents at the pub over the road. After realising her mistake she rapidly left and blundered into the right loo, entering the halls of Holyrood legend as she did so. Her name? Buy us a pint first.
Phone coverage
A BAD week for Stewart McDonald, the SNP MP for Glasgow South, who reckons Russians hackers have been rummaging through his emails in revenge for his very public support for Ukraine. He was duped by a message on his phone, he revealed. Amid the sympathy and concern, some couldn’t help remembering the former SNP defence spokesman had also been vocal about cybersecurity and the risk of ‘doxing’, the malicious release of personal data about someone. “Are you sure you’re taking enough precautions to protect your information online, including on your mobile phone?” he tweeted in 2019. Obviously not.
Space Berater
Glasgow’s Green deputy lord provost Christy Mearns declared herself to be “bitterly disappointed” on Twitter this week after colleagues approved a planning application for the last open space in the Merchant City. It should have been a park, she wailed, just as she had done before getting elected, thereby forcing her to recuse herself from her usual spot on the planning committee. As the decision on the application tied 3-3 it was passed only by the chair using their casting vote. Cllr Mearns could have saved the day, and the space, if only she’d thought ahead. Oops.
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