Drumlanrig: Dressed to kilt in the land of stars and stripes

Mundell was recovering from a ceilidh at the New York Caledonian Club. As a proud Scot, Mundell wore a kilt in the Douglas tartan. “I’m not sure there is a Mundell tartan,” he said. “But Douglas is in my constituency, so I think it is appropriate.”

Mundell was not tempted to try something a bit more daring and therefore did not borrow Jack McConnell’s famous pin-striped kilt that was such a “hit” a few years ago. “From what I can see from the Scottish events I have attended, the Jack McConnell look hasn’t taken off over here yet,” Mundell added.

Good Crieff, Alex, calm town a bit

Alex Salmond’s ridiculously furious reaction to the now infamous “Skintland” front page of The Economist has been lampooned mercilessly. “They shall rue the day they thought they’d have a joke at Scotland’s expense,” raged Salmond, prompting one hack to ask whether the SNP leader was going to “firebomb” the magazine’s offices.

“This is Unionism boiled down to its essence and stuck on a front page for every community in Scotland to see their sneering condescension,” Salmond thundered.

Somehow one can’t quite imagine The Economist’s circulation plummeting, because of a sales boycott in Dundee, Oban, Edinburgh and Crieff. (or Donedee, Obankrupt, Edinborrow and Grieff, as The Economist prefers to call them.)

Humour bypass has tweeters all of a twitter

The reaction to Salmond’s reaction to The Economist’s also amused the twitterati. “Say what you like about the SNP they have a great sense of humour,” tweeted Labour MP Tom Harris – the sarcasm dripping into cyberspace.

Shortly afterwards, Harris then tweeted: “Actually that last tweet should have read ‘say what you like about the SNP’.”

Campaign trail of highs and lows – and walkies

With campaigning for the local elections in full swing, Tory candidate Sheila Low is making a good impression on the doorsteps of Balerno in the Edinburgh suburbs.

The mother-of-four has adopted a no-nonsense approach to campaigning. As she says on her literature: “I have a job and a full-on family life, but I am so annoyed with the quality of our councillors that I have stepped up to the plate to stand.”

Another feature of her campaign is her elderly labrador who goes door-knocking with her, wearing a doggy coat saying: “Aim high, vote Low.”