Talk of the Town: Queen Margo tells Jim to buzz off

Published on Wednesday 25 November 2009 08:35

LOTHIANS MSP Margo McDonald is not averse to a little well-judged heckling during questions and debates in the Scottish Parliament chamber, but she doesn't usually get the chance to unleash it on Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy.

Her chance came at the Scottish Politician of the Year awards last week though, when Mr Murphy made a speech accepting the prize for "Best Scot at Westminster".

He was telling a story about going to see the Queen at Buckingham Palace and how he had been warned that when Her Majesty had had enough of the conversation there was a buzzer she pressed to signal the end of the meeting.

Bzzz! Margo duly pressed an imaginary buzzer on her table. Mr Murphy took the hint and left the stage soon afterwards.

We're not fakin' about this rugby bacon anecdote

MURRAYFIELD'S latest international rugby programme helpfully pointed out under a "trivia" section that there are 150 million sheep in Australia and 20 million people.

This fact brings to mind a tale that is part of Scottish rugby folklore. One player, who shall be nameless, requested a bacon roll on a tour Down Under to be told that none was available from the hotel kitchen.

"What?" he exclaimed. "150 million sheep in this country and you can't rustle up a single bacon roll?"

Read it..or else

A staff survey in NHS Lothian found a whopping 80 per cent looked forward to receiving the in-house newspaper Connections, but it appears it doesn't go down well with everyone.

The organisation's head PR Jenifer Stirton revealed that while she was sussing out the views of the 28,000-strong workforce, one unnamed practice manager had "advised copies of editions would be consigned to the rubbish bin and they would not be distributed to staff".

Ms Stirton told the NHS meeting at which the subject was broached that this was being followed up in "a very robust manner" and that the practice manager's reaction was "unacceptable".

A Liddell claim to fame

Few will have heard of civil engineer Charles Walker who passed away last week. He spent little more than 15 years in the Capital working first with the city engineers department from 1968 and later from 2001 with the Halcrow Group.

But perhaps his greatest claim to fame was discovering the grave of one of Edinburgh's greatest sons, the legendary athlete Eric Liddell. He was working in the Far East, where Liddell died in a PoW camp in 1945, when he made the discovery in 1989. As a result, with the help of Edinburgh University, a two metre high granite memorial stone was erected on the burial site.