NO one would accuse hardboiled Nat Christine Grahame of being over-sensitive, though her bonnet is rarely short of a bee. This week she turned her wrath on US imports with a motion at Holyrood titled “It is Halloween, not Trick or Treat”. It bemoaned pumpkins replacing “the tumshie or neep lantern with its smelly burning candle” and championed “dookin for aipples and guising, despite some overseas cultural invasion”. That’s you telt, America.

DESPERATE stuff in Anas Sarwar’s Labour leadership campaign this week, as his aides rushed to trumpet a video endorsement from Glasgow councillor Maureen Burke. On Twitter, Ms Burke declared that “as a councillor and members of the Unite union” she was delighted to support the put-upon millionaire MSP. However, what she strangely failed to mention in her clip, was that she is also a paid organiser on Mr Sarwar’s campaign. Fancy that!

NICOLA Sturgeon gave a masterclass in political spin at FMQs when she bigged up her discussion paper on income tax. To reach a consensus position, the FM needs to dump her manifesto vow to freeze the 20p rate. So she recast the U-turn as akin to a duty. “We have an opportunity not to stick doggedly to previous positions,” she said, “but to come into a discussion with the best interests of the country at heart.” That’s right, ratting on pledges is now an “opportunity”. Quality BS.

THE FM also praised Nat legend Winnie Ewing as it was the 50th anniversary of the historic Hamilton by-election. It reminded us of Ms Ewing’s next Westminster win, Moray and Nairn in 1974. In her autobiography, she revealed she chose the seat after a hot tip from an oracle in a Greek ruin. “I heard a female voice saying to me, ‘The Scottish voices are calling’. It was clear as day and I came out white-faced.” And they say Alex Salmond has an ego...

TALKING of whom, eyebrows rocketed round Holyrood when the nomadic vaudevillian announced he was hoping to become chair of Scotsman publishers Johnston Press. Asked for his reaction, Scottish Secretary David Mundell dead panned: “As he told me in a Tweet, he did have 19 sell-out shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, so I’m sure that the entertainment section of the newspaper would be greatly enhanced if he was editing it.”

MR Mundell also suggested that if Eck followed George Osborne into an editor’s chair, he would not look far for talent. “The producer of his show [former MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh] is a columnist with another newspaper, so perhaps an early signing.” What about sales? “Well, he obviously has a market,” he miaowed, suggesting it was decidedly limited.

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford has been telling an ethics commission about the intimidation of candidates in the recent election. The online abuse endured by SNP hopefuls was “vast”, “disturbing” and “vile”, he declares in written evidence. Could this be the same Mr Blackford whose sidekick hounded the late LibDem Charles Kennedy online through the 2015 general election campaign, taunting him over his alcoholism? One and the same.