POLITICAL DIARY

Tory barbecue fun

THE affable Donald Cameron was in the headlines after a mini-reshuffle for the Scottish Conservatives saw him moved from health duties to planning the Tories’ next Holyrood election strategy.

Mr Cameron – a lawyer, land owner and MSP – was referred to by one newspaper as a “triple jobbing millionaire”, which made for good fun at the Tories’ summer barbecue.

But he took it in his stride. “Well, I guess the three-job millionaire had better buy the first round” was his response.

Elsewhere, the barbecue was less fun for Lothians MSP Gordon Lindhurst who got pelters last week for asking Nicola Sturgeon what she was doing to help men suffering from a gender pay gap. The own goal infuriated Ruth Davidson and one wag reported Mr Lindhurst was the only item grilled, battered and then roasted at the barbecue!

Don’t talk about Kevin

AN update for MSPs on the progress of the new Queensferry Crossing last week saw one of the rejected suggested names for the new bridge revealed.

The public were asked to come up with ideas last year and it appears one suggestion was “Kevin”.

There’s no truth that it was suggested by comedian Kevin Bridges.

Darren the first

IN other “name news” there was a historic moment in Westminster last week when Labour MP for Bristol North West, Darren Jones, was sworn in.

Mr Jones revealed to fellow MPs he is the first Darren to be elected to the Commons.

Let’s hope that’s not all Darren is remembered for at the end of this parliamentary session.

Mirror, mirror...

THERE was a swap shop of sorts in Holyrood last week when staff were invited to bring in their old clothes and exchange them for other people’s wares. There was even a digital colour stylist on hand with tips on how to identify the colours that suited you best.

As one wag pointed out: “They used to call it a mirror in my day.”

Willie shades it

CLOSE observers of First Minister’s Questions last week might have noticed Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie looked a bit uncomfortable.

Some sort of looming political disaster? Not quite. Mr Rennie had laser eye surgery the day before and was straight back to work.

His bus journey home after the procedure was done under the cover of sunglasses, a move which garnered strange looks from fellow passengers, given it was chucking it down with rain.