Drumlanrig: Nicola Sturgeon | Anas Sarwar | Alan Bisset

THE “highlight” of the political week was STV’s stairheid rammy between Nicola Sturgeon and Anas Sarwar.

Nicola Sturgeon. Picture: Phil Wilkinson

Viewers suffered an hour of babbling and bickering from a couple of politicians determined to shout each other down without taking the slightest notice of what the other was saying. During the interminable ranting and for some inexplicable reason, Sarwar thought it would be appropriate to mention Edinburgh Zoo’s most famous inhabitants. “Let’s leave the pandas out of this,” snapped Sturgeon. Au contraire. Let’s get them involved – preferably on a STV televised debate. Their musings could only raise the level of political discourse.

Bissett’s kitty cat job offer has sharp claws

VOCIFEROUS independence campaigner Alan Bissett, who in his spare time is a novelist and playwright, last week had an online conversation with a Twitter account titled National Selective. As a spoof of the National Collective (the organisation uniting artists campaigning for independence), the National Selective was intrigued by Duggy Dug, an animated dog voiced by Brian Cox which argues for an independent Scotland. Would Bissett, the National Selective wondered, be interested in working on a similar project involving the recent spate of referendum-inspired poetry. “On the QT would you be interested in voicing a new cartoon for us? Working title Kitty Kit, the poetry critic cat?” it inquired.

“Aye sure,” was the novelist, playwright and performer’s reply.

“Great thanks,” responded the National Selective. “Do you know of any animators? Also we’ll need a decent writer – know of any?” Ouch.

Views from the bridge

We can’t accuse Anne McTaggart, the Labour MSP for Glasgow, of not thinking big. In a Parliamentary question last week, she asked the Scottish Government “what its position is regarding the feasibility of the construction of a road bridge linking Scotland with Northern Ireland?” A bridge from the Galloway coast would, if it went ahead, be one of the longest sea-crossings in the world. Transport Minister Keith Brown declared there were “no plans”. But is that right? No sooner had the answer been given than Mike Russell, Education Minister, tweeted his followers to remind them of the proposal, first mooted in the 19th century, to build a 12-mile link from the Mull of Kintyre to the Antrim coast. Perhaps McTaggart is going to get her bridge after all.