Indyref dream bamboozled

CONFIRMATION that Nicola Sturgeon has kicked independence into the long bamboo thicket comes with her trip this week to woo the Chinese, whose leader-forlife Xi Jinping will never allow anyone ‘at any time or in any form, to separate any part of Chinese territory from China’. That’s even longer than Alex Salmond’s ‘once in a generation’ referendum promise to Scots. But Miss Sturgeon still wants Scotland to do more business with China, despite the Scottish Government’s fiveyear plan for this expiring last year. A new ‘engagement strategy’ is now imminent.

THE SNP’s Help to Buy housing scheme is notorious for running out of money quicker than you can say ‘home valuation report’, but you’d have thought there’d be enough in the kitty for a few fridge magnets. When Housing Minister Kevin Stewart launched the latest phase at a show home last week, he found there were not enough magnetic letters to spell ‘Help to Buy’ on the fridge door. Could he not have put some on the mortgage?