Drumranlig

Published on Saturday 4 July 2009 19:54

DOUGLAS DUCKS OUT

SHAME on Douglas Alexander. The Minister for International Development attended a moving service at Paisley Abbey to mark Armed Forces day. Alexander disappointed many members of the congregation by not staying for coffee afterwards.

"It was good of him to go to the service," said one angry voter at the service. "But you would have thought that he would have hung on to meet a few of us. Maybe he didn't want to be quizzed about his colleagues' expenses. It's not what I would have expected from a son of the Manse."

In contrast, Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Tory leader, pressed the flesh and impressed the church-goers with her pawky wit and winsome charm.

GULLS GETS THE GITTERS

MUCH fluttering in Scotland's most expensive dovecote aka – the Scottish Parliament. The proliferation of pigeons roosting in the Miralles's upturned boats has led to falconers being brought in to chase them off.

The presence of the hawk, however, caused fear and alarm among the local gull population. There were Hitchcockian scenes outside the Parly as the screeching birds took flight complete with a bombardment of guano that felled a passing Scotland on Sunday hack.

NO BEATLE TO BE SEEN

UNLIKE those shoddy MSPs who insulted the Queen and their own institution by failing to show up to devolution's tenth birthday party, there was a great turnout of kids for the big day. Among them was Bethany Mone, the daughter of the bra tycoon and Dragon's Den star Michelle, above. But the name on the guest list that caused most excitement amongst officials was Paul McCartney. However, it was not the ex-Beatle from Liverpool, but a namesake wee Paul McCartney fae Dunfermline.

OBLIGED TO GO ABROAD

IN THE year of Homecoming, you'd expect Scottish ministers and officials to stay at home for their summer break. But the joke going around St Andrew's House in Edinburgh is that seeing as you have to go abroad in order to come home, doesn't that create an obligation for them to visit foreign climes this summer? Seems a fair point.

McNEIL MAKES A BREAK

TO THOSE arranging parties in the Western Isles: beware gatecrashing MPs. We hear that Angus McNeil, below, the SNP member for those parts, broke his way into Dover House, home of the Labour-controlled Scotland Office last week, after learning that Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy was having a meeting there with MoD officials about proposed job cuts in the region. Apparently McNeil got past security on the door by passing himself off as somebody else. You can appreciate his concern – it wouldn't have looked good for McNeil if Murphy had managed to get a deal for his constituency. After all, the MP recently issued a press release claiming the Scotland Office was a waste of space.