Drumlanrig: There’s a career in spotting the joker

In a debate on career services, he revealed that, aged five, he read JD Mackie’s A History Of Scotland. Aged seven, he read a biography of Lloyd George. Labour’s Neil Findlay doubled the membership of his fan club by pointing out that Stevenson had also enjoyed an “exciting career” as a pilot, water bailiff and he even “invented” the computer.

Stevenson then boasted that his precocity extended to his acne: “The term ‘moody teenager’ applied not just to Neil Findlay but to me and I will bet that, if we compare photographs, we will find that I was spottier than he was,” Stevenson said.

“And that is an unusual claim to make,” he added.

Too bloody right it is.

Lamont may lament her words to Tory’s tune

Sometimes, praise comes at a price. Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont stuck her neck out to argue that it was time Scotland reassessed whether it should carry on spending money to provide free prescriptions, tuition fees and everything else. The speech drew backing and attacks in equal measures – with Conservative member of the Welsh Assembly Darren Millar the latest to join in. Lamont, he declared last week “has shown her Welsh [Labour] colleagues the way forward” – in an endorsement Lamont will probably put in the “unhelpful” category. SNP MSP Mark McDonald declared cattily: “When the Tories become the biggest cheerleaders for your health policies, it is surely time to stop and think.”

Salmond’s soapbox gets the US talking

Alex Salmond’s article for the Washington Post yesterday defending Scottish independence provided a glimpse into how Main Street USA views the debate. One reader wrote: “I have a friend in Dallas, Texas, a black lady whose only worry regarding Scottish independence is, could it give encouragement to right-wing crazies in her state.” Another wrote: “I would support Texan secession… it would go a long way to restoring sanity in the remaining states and keep the religious right in check.” Clearly the constitutional debate bug is catching. Where will this end?

A his and hers match made in Twitter?

Harmony prevails in the Sturgeon household. With Mr Nicola Sturgeon – SNP chief executive Peter Murrell – marking his birthday yesterday, his wife (Twitter audience: 21,000) asked people to “give him [3,500] a follow and make his day”. Better love hath no wife than to try and boost her hubby’s following.