Drumlanrig: Carwyn Jones | JFK | RBS chief

CARWYN Jones, the Welsh First Minister (below), was speculating last week on the unintended consequences of Scottish independence.

First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones. Picture: Jane Barlow

If Scotland went, he declared, then England may well conclude that it too should set up on its own as an independent state. That would leave Wales and Northern Ireland flying the flag for the United Kingdom. “I joke with Peter Robinson [Northern Ireland’s First Minister] that we’ll divide the UN Security Council seat up between us,” he told an audience in Edinburgh. Interesting times.

White paper TV launch ruffles a few feathers

OPPOSITION parties are livid at the decision by Alex Salmond to launch his white paper this week before the TV cameras in Glasgow, rather than the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. FM Jones was overheard noting last week it wasn’t something the Welsh Assembly authorities would have allowed. The SNP has now agreed that Nicola Sturgeon will let MSPs know what’s going on later on Tuesday. But with all the plans having been handed out earlier that day, the question is whether Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick will tell Sturgeon not to bother and sit down. Watch this space.

Cameo appearance for JFK in Holyrood debate

THE 50th anniversary of the murder of JFK was marked with a Holyrood debate. During it we found out what several of our MSPs were doing when Kennedy was shot. The SNP’s Christine Grahame (below) was watching a Jacques Tati film in the Cameo picture house when the film stopped and the words “John F Kennedy has been assassinated“ were projected across the screen. The cinema emptied without anyone being instructed to leave. According to Grahame, “a mini-skirted Mary Scanlon was back-combing her hair in Montrose ready to go to the Locarno (Ballroom) to dance to Brian Poole and the Tremeloes”. The dance was cancelled.

Outlaws and rogues linked to Scots bank

THE new Aussie chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland has been looking into his Scottish ancestry. He has discovered that the McEwans are of Irish/Scottish ancestry, descended from Irish Kings who came to Scotland in about 500AD. Some of the McEwan clan joined the Campbells, a fact he is reluctant to “dwell on” when there are MacDonalds in the room. His researches unearthed another sept of the clan, who “ran off and became outlaws and rogues, which may be the link between my family and Australia”.