Drumlanrig: Jim Murphy | Pete Wishart | STV debate

WHAT terrible scenes in the House of Commons last week, as Labour shadow cabinet minister Jim Murphy clashed with SNP MP Pete Wishart.
Pete Wishart MP. Picture: ContributedPete Wishart MP. Picture: Contributed
Pete Wishart MP. Picture: Contributed

Fortunately, despite his distress, Wishart was able to compose a tweet about the incident, during which he alleges Murphy told him to “f*** off”, repeatedly.

It’s unfathomable that the happy-go-lucky former Runrig keyboardist could provoke such fury, and so Drumlanrig calls one of his nationalist colleagues to get to the bottom of things.

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The response is somewhat surprising. “I’m [with] Team Murphy on this one,” he says, “I wish he’d punched him.”

Salmond in the pink turns Iain Gray around the gills

IAIN Gray has made a genuine effort to put his electoral hammering at the hands of Alex Salmond in 2011 behind him with his return to Labour’s frontbench.

But this week saw the former Scottish Labour leader having to sit in silence while his one time nemesis delivered a speech at a lunch hosted by the Scottish Political Journalists Association, where Gray was one of a number of MSP guests.

He managed to make it through Salmond’s opening remarks, but after the second course he seemed to have had enough and made good his escape before Salmond got into his stride. Understandable, really.

Stairheid Rammy sets back women’s cause

STV’s televised independence debate last week between Johann Lamont and Nicola Sturgeon looks set to become a benchmark for naked political antagonism.

The current Scottish Labour leader and the SNP Deputy First Minister interrupted and niggled each other repeatedly, with STV host Rona Dougall eventually giving up trying to keep things civil.

As a result, the debate will now inevitably become known as The Stairheid Rammy.

It is likely to silence, for some time, those who argue that more women in parliament would guarantee a more civilised, and a less yah-boo kind of politics.

Watch out for indyref stardust at the Oscars

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GLASGWEGIAN indie darlings Belle & Sebastian were among the winners when the gongs were being handed out at the NME Awards last week, and aped David Bowie’s recent indyref intervention with a comment of their own.

While accepting a gong for outstanding contribution to music, guitarist Stevie Jackson said: “England stay with us – at least just for a night. And if we do leave you, let’s stay friends.”

It looks like an indyref comment is now de rigueur at every award ceremony. Keep your eye on tonight’s Oscars.