Buying the party line

TODAY, London Bridge sits in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The story goes that the Americans wanted to buy and ship over the iconic Tower Bridge, but were sold a pup.

Does a certain tabloid newspaper feel the same this week? They wanted to sign the First Minister as a columnist but instead got the leader of the SNP who filed a party political broadcast script – complete with a pop at the Tories as though it were 1987, not 2017, with Thatcher still at No.10.

Nicola Sturgeon has long had a problem making the distinction between being First Minister for all of Scotland and being the head of the factional SNP.

Signing up for a regular newspaper column again calls into question her judgment and demeans the dignity of the office of First Minister.