BIG changes at BBC Scotland’s Holyrood office, where new staff are being squeezed in for the forthcoming digital channel. The need for space forced one TV producer to wrestle with some cupboards to make way for a desk. As she struggled with the furniture, deputy First Minister John Swinney walked past. “What’s this?” he quipped. “A cabinet reshuffle?”
ALEX Salmond was back at Holyrood on Tuesday to film his Kremlin-TV show. Purely coincidentally, his legal team had just had rather a good day in court in his case against the Scottish Government. Filming an item on, er, a WWII naval disaster, Eck naturally set up shop outside the media tower and was instantly spotted by the hack pack. Our mole reports Schadenfreude Salmond was shocked - shocked! - by their appearance as he bounced over to grant them an audience.
ELSEWHERE at parliament, a reporter recently heard sounds of mild panic from the debating chamber, and found a group of frazzled sight-seers unable to get out. Security were called. It seems an MSP’s aide took the party in without realising most doors lock automatically at night. He then failed to spot one door had stayed open all along. D’oh.
REMARKABLE scenes at the Court of Session on Thursday as two big beasts of the legal jungle clashed in a case about Brexit. Tory Advocate General Lord Keen may be nicknamed The Rottweiler, but he was thoroughly out-growled by QC Aidan O’Neill, who was acting for a group of Remainers. At one point, Mr O’Neill raised his voice to bark over Lord Keen to shut him up as they bickered over a timetabling issue. Seasoned bench watchers declared it the closest thing to a stairheid rammy they’d ever seen from m’learned friends.
THE argy bargy was all the more unexpected for taking place before Scotland’s top judge, the Lord President Lord Carloway. However Unspun suspects he may have secretly enjoyed it. He was clearly unimpressed by much of Lord Keen’s presentation, repeatedly telling him the court had heard it before. Lord Keen’s motion was swiftly refused. “Nothing unexpected,” the Advocate General was heard muttering philosophically.
- Tom Gordon: Tough choices loom over public services
TALKING of lawyers, Tory advocate Gordon Lindhurst was on classic form in a Holyrood debate the same day. Dubbed ‘Chloroform Gordon’ and ‘man-sloth’ for his ponderous delivery, he interrupted a fellow Tory with a point that seemed to last days. The Presiding Officer ruled it so “lengthy” he gave Graeme Simpson extra time to continue. “I think that I can agree with Mr Lindhurst, Presiding Officer,” said Mr Simpson. “You can see why his catchphrase is a dry pause.”
NEW Nat press officer Jack Middleton made an instant impression this week by emailing a private document to all of Holyrood by mistake. A press release template titled “Callous Tory benefit cap hurts [Figure A] in [Area]," it invited MSPs to fill the blanks with local data, then express some HQ-approved shock. “SNP MSP for [Constituency], [Name], has criticised the ‘heartless’ Tory austerity that is driving up child poverty,” ran one suggestion for spontaneous outrage. “Dear Jack, Thanks for this,” replied grinning Tory troll Sir Edward Mountain. A week in the job and already in Unspun, Jack will surely go far.
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