Blogosphere: Salmond's saintly glow

Published on Sunday 8 June 2008 22:10

I HAVE never been fond of Mr Enric Miralles’s architecture for the Scottish Parliament building. This Caledonian Casa Poporului looks, in my view, like a Surrealist car park, which is an altogether more interesting proposition than its actual function, which is to make the assembled cooncillors, party hacks and accidental politicians feel important as they go about the business of not doing very much at all.

While recently watching the dim spectacle of First Minister’s Questions, I noticed an unusual feature of the architecture. It is a matter of light. Whenever the Senior Retainer, Mr Alex Salmond, stood up to speak, his head was wrapped in a turban of bright sunshine. It wasn’t a halo as such – the light was too diffuse – but it did administer a saintly glow to his physiognomy. This is a great benefit to the Nationalist leader.

The leader of the New Socialists, Ms Wendy Alexander, had no such advantage. The grandiosity of the debating chamber – which I fancy is modelled on the banqueting hall at Ikea headquarters in Humlabaek, Denmark – has the effect of making the diminutive Ms Alexander resemble a wasp ingesting a sherbet dip-dab.

http://kirkelder.blogspot.com