Drumlanrig: Vintage nickname for Joan McAlpine

THAT the ex-journalist and now SNP MSP Joan McAlpine should enjoy a lavish lunch with Alex Salmond came as little surprise to her former newspaper colleagues who have long associated her with fine wine.

When she was a Glasgow-based daily newspaper executive, the underlings who she bossed around referred to her as Chardonnay.

It was not her resemblance to a footballer’s wife that earned her the nickname, rather it was that her colleagues thought she was a “wee white whine”.

Margo says No to Jambo territory

For even the doughtiest campaigners for independence, football rivalries can transcend politics. When asked if she would be going to Friday’s launch of the Yes Scotland campaign at Cineworld, Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, Margo MacDonald MSP answered: “I doubt it. That’s Jambo territory.” Perhaps her answer was predictable given that about 22 years ago the former SNP deputy leader chaired the “Hands Off Hibs” campaign.

Pringle in a spin over rumours of job offer

Rumours are abounding that Alex Salmond’s chief spin-doctor could leave his job as a Scottish Government special adviser to take over the running of the Yes Scotland referendum campaign.

When asked about the possibility, Kevin Pringle said: “This is the job I am in. This is the job I am continuing to be in and that is it. That is the simple position.” So that’s that then.

Lord Lyell is second to none on motto memory

In the House of Lords, Lord Lyell of Kinnordy, the former Tory Northern Ireland minister from a well-known family near Kirriemuir, was reminiscing about a youthful scrape that occurred while he was serving his country.

While peers were discussing matters military, Lord Lyell paid tribute to an early mentor – the late Sgt Kiwi Clements of the Coldstream Guards. Lord Lyell recalled that 55 years ago Sgt Clements “licked me into shape as a young national serviceman”. Lord Lyell added: “The motto of the Coldstream Guards is ‘Nulli Secundus’. Sergeant Clements put me under close arrest for thinking it meant ‘no second helpings’. It does not. It means ‘second to none’. ”