Putin the boot in to Comrade Alexei and his telly show
THE SNP is a bit like a Russian doll. Every time you strip away one, you find another (usually more sinister) beneath.
At First Minister’s Questions, Ruth Davidson wanted to test the Nationalists’ unity on the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a Russian spy who defected and who Theresa May says was targeted for assassination by Vladimir Putin’s regime.
The Scottish Tory leader queried whether Nicola Sturgeon supported the sanctions that had been announced by the Prime Minister.
Miss Sturgeon, sounding resolute and statesmanlike, ‘agreed wholeheartedly that the Salisbury poisoning is a gravely serious issue’.
She told MSPs that, based on the evidence: ‘The conclusion that Russia was responsible is a reasonable one.’ Moreover, she wanted a ‘firm response’ and was all for Mrs May’s measures.
There followed a curious noise from the benches behind her: muted murmuring and halfhearted desk-slapping.
The First Minister has been strikingly mature in her public statements since the Salisbury outrage. She is well aware the Russian state would have no compunction about launching a similar mission in Glasgow or Edinburgh.
Some in her party take a different line: the Kremlin one. When Miss Davidson condemned Russian propaganda channel RT, the Nationalist ranks finally found their voice.
One comrade, who had started on the Stoli early, shouted ‘BBC!’. Auntie is hardly perfect but Songs of Praise has cut back on the hymns to Treasury deficit targets. The more outlandish Nationalists believe the BBC is part of a Unionist conspiracy to suppress independence. Russia Today, they reckon, is much more balanced.
And it is: It invites on people who think the CIA did 9/11 and those who say it was Mossad.
Elsewhere, Richard Leonard produced payslips showing workers on a Scottish Government-funded infrastructure project were charged to access their wages.
The First Minister, who likes to claim the mantle of social justice, waffled through an answer and her backbench heavies heckled the Scottish Labour leader.
Mr Leonard had struck a nerve. His performances at FMQs are patchy but he’s strongest when he needles Miss Sturgeon on the gap between her radical rhetoric and technocratic record.
Stalin believed in socialism in one country; Miss Sturgeon can’t manage it in one government.
Annie Wells wanted to ask a question but had lost her voice. In most MSPs this would be a sweet mercy. (I love hearing about ethical crofting and sustainable quilting as much as the next person, but there is a limit.) However, Wells always deserves an ear.
The Tory MSP is a feisty wee terrier – a gallus, working-class Weegie who speaks her mind with good humour and an earthy mien.
Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs came to the rescue, like a giant human Strepsil, and took up her question for her.
CLAUDIA Beamish, wearing a Palestine Solidarity Campaign lanyard, inquired what progress had been made on land ownership changes. She wants greater transparency on who holds what parts of Scotland, which is at least less militant than the Palestinian approach to land reform.
Miss Sturgeon gave the Labour MSP one of her Netflix responses. This is when the First Minister is asked about a subject she couldn’t care less about, has to pretend to be riveted but is really mentally scrolling through the TV listings.
Land reform is a fixation for a certain strain of Scottish opinion. You can tell these people by their charity shop chic and tendency to bring up the Highland Clearances.
If giving them some far-flung glens where they can grow their organic kale and pronounce country ‘kintra’ will keep them happy, it’s a price worth paying.