Brian Wilson

Alister Jack’s stumble onto centre stage in the great betting scandal is the stuff of comedy. By common consent, Mr Jack only finds himself in the spotlight because he told a BBC reporter, after the election was called, that he had made a tidy sum out of betting on it to take place in July.

John Keane, who has died aged 89, was a Mayo man of humble origins who built a successful business in Scotland and played a dramatic role when Celtic Football Club faced its darkest financial hour in 1994.

Scotland and the rest of the UK will need tradespeople as much as graduates and apprentices as much as experienced hands. The college network is uniquely placed to meet these challenges with the great advantage of localism.

Tuesday’s BBC debate gave cause for hope that the SNP’s style of politics has finally been rumbled.

“Cutting through” is one of these annoying clichés beloved of self-important young things as they bustle from one important meeting to the next with people who share the same political values. If it isn’t “cutting through”, it doesn’t matter. Never mind integrity or principle.

The appearance of the Cabinet Secretary for lots of things, Mairi McAllan before Holyrood’s Net Zero Committee, bordered on the comedic. Weaned on the politics of nationalism, Ms McAllan learned the basic script along with her nursery rhymes – it’s always someone else’s fault.

I am all in favour of those responsible for the great ferry shambles being held to account and equally clear that Transport Scotland (i.e. the Scottish Government) “fining” Caledonian MacBrayne vast sums piles irony upon scandal and farce.

John Swinney’s first week in office as First Minister reminded me of the great little poem by Hughes Mearns, “The Man Who Wasn’t There” as queues form down the Royal Mile pleading for policies to be reversed.

In 1979, I opposed political devolution because I feared that Scottish politics would become bogged down in a permanent argument about “powers” rather than outcomes

At this distance in time, it is difficult to overstate the significance of Billy going ahead with the shows in Belfast. It was a terrible year of the Troubles with a steady flow of sectarian murders, internecine paramilitary killings and IRA bombings in Britain.