Comrade Eck’s Jolly joke with Vladimir

SINCE the departure of the late, great Rikki Fulton, New Year TV has been a poor show. There was no Rev IM Jolly, pictured, to gladden our hearts – merely former First Minister AE Salmond attempting a parody of the lugubrious cleric on his Russia Today television show. In a New Year message listing reasons to be gloomy in 2018, Eck risked angering his Russian paymasters by suggesting ‘Putin running again’ before adding, more predictably, ‘Theresa May still hanging around’. But Vladimir Putin is unlikely to take umbrage at the man who praised him for ‘restoring a substantial part of Russian pride’ – even as his troops massed for the annexation of Crimea.