Normally when the BBC’s Andrew Neil asks a politician to put a figure on one of their policy proposals the interviewee should be wary, because a trap is about to be sprung.
For some reason that didn’t happen today.
Joan McAlpine, SNP MSP for the South of Scotland, extensively documented at the weekend the obstructiveness of Labour councillors in Dumfries and Galloway, who in an attempt to score some SNP BAD points were refusing to inform their constituents about the Scottish Government’s £1500-per-household flood relief grants to help people cope after recent storms.
The councillors eventually backed down and informed hard-pressed householders and businesses of the help available, but today the issue was debated on the floor of the Holyrood chamber, and when Labour once again tried to make the issue party political, the Deputy First Minister ran out of patience.
We had a lot of requests for the footage, so there it is.
This is what a man who REALLY doesn’t want to answer a question looks like.
We tweeted this proposition last night (the quote comes from a blog post yesterday by Scottish Labour madcase and all-round comedy relief Ian Smart):
We thought you might enjoy some of the responses as much as we did.
Have a good one, readers.
Because some of you won’t have seen it yet.
Comrades! Be upstanding and bow your heads to your superior, The Right Honourable The Lord Darling of Ruilanish, revolutionary socialist of Her Majesty:
There’s absolutely no news today – Scottish politics already seems to have packed up for Christmas – so why not watch a nice documentary instead?
Altered States has been available in episode form for a wee while now, but McMaster Media have kindly put together a full-length cut exclusively for Wings Over Scotland.
It’s a fascinating analysis with lots of insightful chat from – among others – the likes of Derek Bateman, Paul “Wee Ginger Dug” Kavanagh, James “Scot Goes Pop” Kelly and Christopher Silver, to whose pre-indyref “Scotland Yet” it’s basically a post-indyref counterpart, and it’s a perfect way to pass a slow, rainy Sunday.
Tonight we watched as the conclusion of a “debate” in the UK Parliament saw the “opposition”, almost unprecedentedly, sum up the same case as the government, to roof-raising cheers and applause (which is now apparently permitted again) from the Conservative benches for a Labour shadow minister.
We were rather put in mind of a famous Neil Kinnock speech from 1985.
Alex Salmond in the Syria debate with the non-pacifist case against bombing.
(Features brief cameo appearance from Alberto Costa MP, noted twat.)
To mark the day that we both appeared in the Herald’s “Power 100” list of “The leading Scots who shape our lives” – and she had another go at trolling us – we’d like to dedicate this wonderful tune sincerely to the popular children’s author JK Rowling:
We’ll try to understand her problems more sensitively in future.
Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.
