Scotland’s Waltons

AMERICAN viewers had The Waltons – now Scots in the Border TV area can enjoy The Mundells, when tomorrow’s edition of Border Life focuses on Scottish Secretary David and his recently elected MSP son Oliver. Viewers will be treated to the pair’s first joint interview, before watching the younger Mundell learning to ride a horse. But Oliver lacks John-Boy Walton’s way with horses and falls off during an ‘around the world’ manoeuvre as he attempts to spin round in the saddle. At least he’s not the first Scottish politician to come a cropper.

NATIONALIST MP Carol Monaghan’s claim that the term Jock is ‘as unacceptable as any other racist slur’ will have come as a surprise to Scotland’s black and Asian communities. Likewise Nationalist MP Ian Blackford’s comparison of the threat to return the Brain family to Australia with the Highland Clearances will bemuse descendants of Scots burned out of their homes. What kind of virtual reality Scotland do these politicians inhabit?