It could have been the hit of the Fringe – the Pot and Kettle Show in which Nicola and Alex exchange one-liners about which is the sadder, more reduced figure from whom a period of silence would be welcome.

As the Comeback Kid delivers fresh jabs, his former protegé protests her innocence. Usually people wait to be accused of something before denying it but “I can’t possibly say anything while investigations continue” is so last year. If only a skilled promotor could bring them together in the same auditorium – a role perhaps for Tommy Sheppard.

I must confess to being a slight Fringe sceptic. This derives from once, long ago, having been enlisted to The Herald’s Festival coverage which entailed writing short reviews of four or five shows a day and trying to find something nice to say about them, in order not to damage delicate physchés. As the mission progressed, this became ever more challenging.

Reading some reviews of current offerings brings back memories. For example: “Within minutes of making our Fringe acquaintance, Tiffany Black is over-sharing anecdotes about vaginal-waxing and her first sighting of a penis”. I empathised with the kindness of the unfortunate reviewer for mustering two stars.

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In the same spirit of generosity, let’s recognise that, however inadequate or deluded, performers who take to the stage do require a certain degree of courage. The same cannot be said of politicians who seek out the comfort-zone of pontificating to tame audiences, prompted by unchallenging interviewers while seeking to convey the impression of hidden gravitas.

It is a bit of a mystery why this distinctly unartistic genre has become an accepted appendage of either Festival or Fringe. Even odder is the willingness of the Book Festival to grant the same platform to individuals who have never written a book; in Ms Sturgeon’s case, a literary treat which we await with less than baited breath.

One can only imagine the chapter headings. “The Dream Will Never Die – one day there will be a Deposit Return Scheme”. Or perhaps: “Patrick Harvie – his part in my downfall”. By 2025, I’m sure the nation will be agog. But let’s be serious.

If there is a genuine desire on the part of politicians to address the public, then why restrict this craving to Edinburgh at Festival time when, for the rest of the year, wild horses would not move them to adorn a public platform if it involved encountering an audience of real people with serious, life-affecting issues on their minds?

Public meetings should be in the lifeblood of accountable, well-informed politics and if devolution is meant to extend beyond a Parliament building in Edinburgh, a Scottish revival of that principle would be a good way of showing it – far beyond the sanitised setting of a Fringe venue with an audience of tourists.

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I write as a rare survivor from political generations which believed in the essential role of the public meeting in our democratic system, as well as being great entertainment. It was once taken for granted that anyone unprepared to face a potentially hostile audience in a public forum was unqualified to be an MP or MSP, far less a Minister. That is now a forgotten credential.

It is one I adhered to throughout my own time in politics. Invariably, these experiences reinforced my belief that if you want to understand arguments surrounding any issue, the best way to do it is by engaging with those most directly involved, rather than through any bureaucratic or media filter. The best forum for achieving that is the public meeting.

The Scottish Government is awash with Ministers – 28 of them at the last count – and in summer, they like to meander round the periphery, scattering press releases in their wake. At a guess, half a dozen will have passed through my own neck of the woods before Holyrood resumes.

There has been no shortage of subjects on which they could have fitted in a a public meeting – ferries and HPMAs for starters – but of course it is the last option they would even contemplate. Let me assure them. While consensus might have been elusive, willingness to engage will always earn respect, listening will inevitably lead to learning and halls will be packed to the rafters.

I wonder when a Scottish drugs minister last went into a community ravaged by that scourge and created an open forum in which the common people could have their say, in full public glare? It might make uncomfortable listening but the certainty is that the Minister would come away with an unvarnished understanding of what people at the sharp end think, in terms of causes and solutions.

Half-decent Ministers use that intelligence as leverage to get things done. One issue I inherited as Energy Minister involved the painfully slow payment of compensation to miners who were dying of respiratory diseases with fears that the claims would die with them. It was only by holding meetings in mining communities across Britain that it was possible to feel the pain, reassure and change the rules.

In such cases, civil servants will always advise against this sort of direct engagement, ostensibly to protect the Minister but usually to avoid pressure for action which raw contact with human experience is likely to engender. That is the best possible reason for politely rejecting their advice.

Scotland is a small country and there is no reason why there could not be first-hand engagement on a regular basis – starting with places which face greatest disadvantage. Give people a voice and you will soon find out what they have to say instead of hiding behind platitudes, press releases and selective statistics. Politics will become relevant and better informed.

So forget Edinburgh talk-ins in August. The listening should be done in towns, villages and housing schemes every month of the year. A manifesto commitment to public meetings with Ministerial attendance would create a standard to be adhered to. And the word devolution would start to have meaning.

Brian Wilson is a former Labour Party politician. He was MP for Cunninghame North from 1987 until 2005 and served as a Minister of State from 1997 to 2003.