Twins

Well, the past few weeks have been very busy here in Brigadoon. Not enough time for eating, sleeping and entertaining forfar-quine, let alone for blogging. Looks like the next few weeks could be similarly busy (the mist machine is making an ominous clanking noise) so just to keep things ticking over here's some puerile fun in place of the substantive political commentary and insight that I normally indulge in (ahem).

Whilst browsing the news I was struck by the eery similarity between the two images below. One shows a snarling, treacherous beast operating from the basest of motives, interested only in the preservation of its hideous brethren at the expense of any human being foolish enough to stand in its way. And Sigourney Weaver saw to the other one (her husband is a Forfar loon in case you didn't know).

"Murphy"

"Alien"

Poll results: Which voting system do you favour for elections to Westminster?

FPTP: 2 votes
STV: 22 votes
AV: 1 vote
WTF?: 3 votes

So STV by a landslide. Assuming most visitors to Brigadoon are independence-friendly (as suggested by the onward rumbling constitutional settlement poll) I guess that makes sense. After all, the SNP have routinely gained many fewer MPs than their share of the vote would justify.

It's been interesting to see some of the arguments from various corners of Westminster about PR vs FPTP. Essentially the argument seems to have been that yes, PR is more democratic, but it precludes the formation of a strong government (unless of course a single party polls >50%). Perhaps they should cast their eyes northwards to see a strong minority government in action, aided by a few fleeting glimpses of a new, more consensual style of politics...?

Sadly I fear the BNP gaining 2 MEPs will scupper any chances of PR appearing in Westminster elections any time soon: it's the perfect excuse to keep the cosy Lab/Tory duopoly for evermore.

Beith for Speaker

Ian Dale is pondering who the next speaker will be.

From the short list it has to be Sir Alan Beith for me. In these newly-enlightened days of transparency and propriety (ahem!) it would serve the interests of both Labour (until the next GE) and Tories (thereafter) not to have one of their own as speaker.

Alan Beith has huge experience of parliament and its machinations, hasn't been mentioned too badly in the expenses scandal, has little in the way of "baggage" and would command respect across the house.

As MP for Berwick he sits neatly between England and Scotland at a time when we might expect Westminster-Holyrood relations to get a little testy between Tories and SNP.

Finally, his seat is not exactly marginal, so little to lose for Labour or Tory in seeing him returned unopposed as speaker. I rest my case.

Labour grief in Monifieth

Interesting news from Monifieth (and how often does one get to say that?), where the poor benighted soul earmarked to be Labour's candidate for the June 25th council by-election has taken the only remaining course of action to avoid utter humiliation...he's moved house out of the council ward, thereby disqualifying himself as a candidate! (BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/8093086.stm; Courier: http://www.thecourier.co.uk/output/2009/06/10/newsstory13275593t0.asp)

But never fear! Labour, dogged as ever, are unwilling to let a trifling matter like not actually having a candidate stand in their way. They have been eagerly sending out leaflets exhorting the masses to vote for their (invisible) man...erm, even though he won't be appearing on the ballot paper. Not only that, but the Labour foot soldiers are so impressed with Iain Gray's attempts at leadership that they can't even spell his name correctly! I wonder what Alec Summoned, Anagram Goldfish and Travis Scout make of it all...?

That said, underestimate the formidable Labour machine at your peril. A flood of postal votes must surely already be in preparation...

Scotland doesn't exist

Well, what a pleasant couple of weeks away that was. No chance to read the papers or browse the web, barely a thought given to football or politics...have I missed much while I was away?

On my travels in the misty Carpathian mountains of Romania I was fortunate enough to purchase the stamp shown below. It's one of last year's stamps for letters to Europe (and has recently been replaced by a fetching picture of some storks). Now I'm not usually very interested in stamps but look again closely...isn't there something missing there...?

We're sunk!

I guess this is all part of the Union dividend - invisibility to the outside world.

Not content with seeing Scotland the victim of a bad Romanian stamp (again) I also had the near impossibility of an unpleasant conversation with a Finnish lady. "Where are you and your wife from?" she asked. "Scotland and Germany", I replied. "Ah, England and Germany", she mis-repeated. For the sake of international relations I resisted my more bloodthirsty instincts and let it slide.

One day, hopefully soon, such irritations of Scottish invisibility will be a thing of the past.