Bowie lives on (but not as a Scots Tory)

ON seeing ‘Bowie forever’ trending on Twitter last week, most of us were reminded of the death two years ago of the late, great creator of Ziggy Stardust, pictured. Few would have thought of an obscure MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine. But it seems the Scottish Conservative Party is so drunk on fame after its success in the Westminster and Holyrood elections, pushing Labour to third and breathing down the necks of the SNP, that one starry-eyed staffer was heard to wonder ‘if Andrew Bowie MP had a fan club I wasn’t aware of’. AS the supposed hard-Left saviour of Scottish Labour, new leader Richard Leonard had not been making much headway against Nicola Sturgeon at First Minister’s Questions – until last week, when he drew blood in an NHS-dominated debate by recalling the powerful testimony of 80-year-old Tom Wilson, forced to wait 16 hours for treatment after suffering a fall at home. So where did ‘Real Change’ Leonard acquire this telling piece of ammunition? Apparently he was handed it by his predecessor, Kezia ‘Jungle Girl’ Dugdale.