Drumlanrig: David Cameron | Ian Murray | Humza Yousaf

THE picture of a pink and portly David Cameron on a beach in Cornwall last week helped to strip the British Prime Minister of any dignity for the next few weeks.

David Cameron. Picture: Neil Hanna

But at least we are grateful that he is so far the only frontline politician who has bared all over the summer months. The thought of Ed Miliband parading his pecs is probably enough to half newspaper circulation this summer. Meanwhile, all of Scotland is eternally grateful that Alex Salmond – whose gravitas seems to grow with every passing month – took himself to the north-west of Scotland this summer, where it remains too chilly to unbutton a shirt. Let’s keep it that way, FM.

Gorgeous way to be recorded by Commons

The Edinburgh South MP Ian Murray was telling tales about the shadow Scottish secretary Margaret Curran (below) when a group of Labour luvvies welcomed Ed Miliband to the capital for a visit to the Fringe.

Murray recalled that when they were new MPs to the House of Commons, they discovered they could choose exactly what name they would be referred to in debates, in Hansard and when they were sworn in. “Do you think I could get away with ‘The Gorgeous Margaret Curran?’” she asked Murray. Despite Murray replying in the affirmative, she eventually went for plain old Margaret Curran.

Sobering vision of a Punjabi fling

A MARVELLOUS example of cross-cultural fertilisation took place yesterday when an SNP MSP did a version of the Punjabi folk dance Bhangra in the streets of London while wearing his kilt. Humza Yousaf tweeted a picture of himself clad in SNP tartan, striking an impressive pose. “Is this cultural diplomacy from a small country?” wondered the former culture minister Linda Fabiani on Twitter. Others on the messaging network had a different view, thinking it was probably the first sighting in London of a sober man in Highland dress since before the big game at Wembley.