SOME late news just in from Scottish Labour conference in Dundee. We hear a Blairite diehard got the DJ at Saturday's disco to play “Things can only get better” to wind up the Lefties. So infuriating was Tony’s theme song, he asked for it again later. At which a Corbynite ran over to say it wouldn’t happen as there had been “complaints” the first time. In other words, job done.
MUSICAL goings-on at Holyrood too, where MSPs are forming a band. The Commons already has the popular MP4 featuring the SNP’s Pete Wishart. Holyrood's answer has Labour’s Pauline McNeill on vocals, Tory Brian Whittle and Labour’s Daniel Johnson on guitars, and possibly Nat Tom Arthur on keyboards. All they need is a drummer and a name. Rumours that Murdo Fraser wants to plays the flute are wholly untrue.
BUT does Mr Whittle have what it takes to rock out? On Tuesday, he was so appalled by Westminster shenanigans over Brexit, he left Holyrood to go home and strum wistfully for hours rather than tune in for the vote. Aw, lambkin.
HEROIC abstainer David Mundell has been getting it raw after sitting out Wednesday’s crunch vote on no-deal. Just last month the Scottish Secretary previously said no-deal would cause extreme harm to the Union, vowing: “I will do whatever I deem necessary to prevent a no-deal Brexit!” Translation: up to and including nothing.
SO farewell then, David Stocks, leader of the chaotic SNP opposition on North Lanarkshire Council, who gives up the post on Monday. At least he won’t be at a loose end, having friends in many places. Like the Orange Order, for instance. In 2015, he enjoyed dinner at the ‘Orange Oscars’, when the ultra-Unionist No campaigners gave gongs to outstanding lodges. “We live in a culturally diverse area,” the Nat councillor shrugged. Ah, Lanarkshire.
BUT it’s welcome back to Dan McCroskrie, the improbable Tory candidate in the Western Isles in 2017, who is now standing for Edinburgh Council in the Leith Walk by-election. Dan famously used a picture of voter-free St Kilda on his last election leaflet, then spent much of the campaign working at Holyrood. With an absentee candidate, the Tory vote jumped 9 per cent.
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AT least Mr McCroskrie is a Leith resident, and so unlikely to use another snap of an island abandoned in 1930 on his bumf this time. It sounds like the locals know him too. At this week’s hustings he was instantly booed. However our mole reports he won over the crowd with a joke about snooty Morningside - where Tories actually get elected.
STRANGEST debate of the week was Wednesday’s Holyrood blether about space. Nat Kenny Gibson recalled going to the pub aged 13 to watch Star Trek “over a Coca-Cola” while his mum watched Coronation Street. That was before video recorders he explained to deputy PO Christine Grahame, “although I know for you, it was the invention of the talkies that changed your world”. She got her own back by cutting him short at the end. “Conclude! I am sorry, but if you make an ageist comment... you cannot expect me to be sympathetic.”
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