Drumlanrig: Knocking justice on the head?

MSPs may have been branded “headbangers” by critics before in less charitable moments.

Sandra White MSP. Picture: Robert Perry

But it appears that some are ready to take this monicker literally to deal with difficult lawyers in the country’s sheriff courts.

Holyrood’s justice committee considered proposals aimed at encouraging better co-operation between prosecution and defence teams, prompting Glasgow MSP Sandra White to suggest greater efforts to “knock a couple of heads together” and ensure both sides are talking to each other to cut out pointless delays in the court process.

Committee convenor Christine Grahame seemed quite taken by the suggestion. “I am just waiting for the Sandra White knocking-heads-together amendment to appear – that would get our attention,” she told fellow MSPs.

White responded that she “would like to do that, actually”.

Politicians seeking feline friends

AN IN-HOUSE moggy being adopted by MSPs at Holyrood seems to be moving closer in an effort to tackle a growing problem of mice. There have been a spate of sightings of mice since last summer and it has emerged that £4,100 is being spent on pest control at Holyrood every year.

Lothian Labour MSP Kezia Dugdale (below) has been among those suggesting that a cat could provide a less costly solution to the problem. “There’s a cat at Number 10, so why not at the Scottish Parliament,” Dugdale said.

The mouse has been spotted in a newspaper office in Holyrood’s media tower and there have been sightings in the Garden Lobby on the MSPs’ route to the debating chamber and committees.

There were 21 sightings of rodents at Holyrood in the first ten months of last year – this compares with just 11 two years previously. As numbers rise, Drumlanrig wonders if one cat will be enough?

Curtain-raiser for Cameo’s centenary year

THE CAMEO cinema has been a favourite among movie lovers in the capital for decades and now its popularity is being recognised at Holyrood. Labour MSP Sarah Boyack has lodged a motion hailing the centenary of the Leven Street establishment which first opened its doors as the King’s Cinema in 1914, before changing to the Cameo in 1949. Boyack says it is the best example of a “back court cinema”, a particularly Scottish concept which saw auditoriums behind tenement blocks. The motion, which has won cross-party backing notes that following the UK premiere of Pulp Fiction in 1994, its director Quentin Tarantino described the cinema as his favourite in the world.