Drumlanrig: Ambassador, you will be spoiling us

SNP ministers have finally found a new example to demonstrate the economic riches that will flow to Scotland if it backs independence next year: a boom in diplomats.

Humza Yousaf. Picture: Greg Macvean

In Parliament last week, External Affairs Minister Humza Yousaf (below) declared: “We expect that, with independence, we will see a significant expansion in the number of diplomatic missions and the scale of diplomatic representation in Scotland. The benefit to the Scottish economy of the creation of those additional jobs is likely to be incredibly significant.”

And that’s not even counting the similarly massive up-tick in the sales of Ferrero Rocher in Scottish stores.

Woah, we’re not going to Barbados

Patrick Mercer MP is counting the cost of a newspaper sting that saw him offer to lobby on behalf of Fiji.

Getting other MPs to join a new all-party group on Fiji shouldn’t be too difficult, he told the undercover reporters, as who wouldn’t want a nice freebie trip to the South Seas? Plenty, it appears.

However, in Scotland, it appears our own MSPs are more immune to such temptations. An enticing sounding cross-party group on the Caribbean has just three members.

Grahame bugged by Holyrood pest problem

The big political story of the week was undoubtedly Christine Grahame’s bid to employ a cat to be Holyrood’s chief mouser.

As the parliamentary authorities mull over her proposal to get a moggy to rid the Scottish Parliament of their mice, Grahame (below) has now been asked if she can do anything about “the giant spiders in the basement”.

That particular mission, however, is a creepy crawlie too far.

“That problem is not mine,” the SNP MSP said. “If only the mice would eat the spiders.”

Wee sleekit, cow’rin political beasties

The bid for a Holyrood cat was launched after a sighting of three mice outside the ladies’ loos near the parliament bar last week.

Despite the press coverage of the proposal, the mice continue with their brazen antics.

The Scottish Political Editor of the BBC Brian Taylor is the latest user of the bar to have a drink in the company of the rodents.

“It was all right though,” Taylor said. “There were only town mice. If there had been great big field mice that would have been a different matter entirely.”