Matheson must be longing for the days he just got grilled on the state of the NHS
SCOTLAND’S Health Secretary was bricking it.
Mischievous Michael Matheson sat glumly and statue-still next to the First Minister as attention focused on his career-threatening expenses scandal.
Mr Matheson usually espouses about as much charisma as a bog brush. If ever there was a time he wanted to be flushed down the toilet, this was it.
The sheepish SNP maverick rarely looked up from the hole he was trying to stare into the chamber floor. Presumably, he was simply praying the floor would open up and swallow him whole.
The Health Secretary, sat right next to the First Minister, was failing to hide in plain sight.
Being a human shield for ministerial daftie is old hat to the First Minister.
He told MSPS that the under-fire Health Secretary merely made “an honest mistake”, despite later admitting he’d told a whopper.
Never missing an opportunity, the FM smirked that “to get a lecture on principles and integrity from the party that gave us Boris Johnson is quite something”.
The FM pretty much signalled the impending end of Mr Matheson’s stint as health secretary when he insisted that he has “absolute confidence” in him staying on.
Mr Matheson daren’t move an inch, he could barely look the First Minister in the eye. Much like a teenage boy who had just been caught running up £11,000 on his dad’s parliamentary ipad.
The tone shifted immediately when Anas Sarwar had the audacity to bring up serious questions over the health service and the probe facing NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
The rest of FMQS reverted back to the usual mundane exchanges.
The Health Secretary was back in the chamber two hours later, admitting he’d lied about knowing his offspring had used his parliamentary ipad to watch football.
Mr Matheson got visibly upset – it was painful to watch, not unlike the Scottish football screened on the infamous ipad.
He just wanted to protect his children from the “political media scrutiny”, you see – clearly a job well done.
He’ll be longing for a day he can go to work and just get grilled about the state of Scotland’s crisis-hit NHS.
And those days might well be numbered.