Drumlanrig

CARMICHAEL WHIPS UP COALITION COCKTAILS

Coalition politics has its stresses, particularly for the whips who must herd MPs into the voting lobbies in the face of disgruntlement at yet another compromise.

So no surprise then that Alistair Carmichael, the Orkney and Shetland MP and chief whip on the Lib Dem side, has reinstated an old institution in his Whip’s office – the drinks cabinet. After all, there is nothing like a fortifying nip to help MPs get over their principled grudges and get in line.

Carmichael reveals that the cabinet was particularly bare on the day of the tuition fee vote earlier this year. They’re still suffering the hangover from that one.

CASH SCEPTICAL ABOUT EUROPE?

The Tory right is a strange beast. Legendary europhile Bill Cash was overheard in Westminster corridors recently offering his opinion on fellow right-winger Douglas Carswell MP. “The trouble with him,” Cash said, “is that he’s completely obsessed with Europe.”

SNP DIVIDED OVER SAME-SEX UNIONS

SNP sources are keenly seeking to play down the potential for fireworks at a fringe event at their conference in Inverness where the issue of gay marriage will come under debate.

Alongside pro-gay marriage MEP Alyn Smith, the local Episcopalian bishop will be in attendance supporting the plans. John Mason MSP may be keen to put his point across – that’s if he’s not ordered to take a walk down Loch Ness.

SORE POINT OF FOX’S MATE’S NICKNAME

Former classmates of Liam Fox’s best man Adam Werritty have been watching his rather painful rise to fame with some astonishment.

Those at Madras College in St Andrews in the 1990s were finding it difficult to comprehend how their childhood chum found himself at the centre of a political scandal.

Perhaps there was a clue pointing towards future difficulties in his schoolboy nickname, “Hacker”.

History does not relate whether Hacker refers to computing, the central character in the Yes, Prime Minister comedy or Werritty’s robust performances for the Madras 1st XV.