Blue hoo

RUM doings at Michelle Ballantyne’s launch for the Scottish Tory leadership. Hacks were told to gather in a converted church, presumably because she hasn’t a prayer. Asked why no other MSP was backing her, Ms B claimed they’d all pledged allegiance to Jackson Carlaw first because “they didn’t know that I was even going to be running two weeks’ ago”. What jolly rotten luck, eh? Then again, as Ruth Davidson created the vacancy by quitting in August, it would seem forward planning is not Ms B’s strong point.

Odd business

ALSO appearing to have trouble on that front is her Tory colleague Alexander Burnett, the minted MSP for Aberdeenshire West. One of his many money spinners is facing a statutory fine for failing to file timely accounts at Companies House. The North Banchory Company Ltd, in which Mr Burnett, holds all £10m worth of shares, should have filed last month. It also failed to file accounts on time in 2017. Mr Burnett is - you guessed it - his party’s spokesman on business.

Total bankers

MUCH sniggering at the back in Holyrood during Tuesday’s vote to create a new Scottish National Investment Bank. Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard opined that he’d had the same brilliant idea 25 years ago, only the SNP’s version was not bold and ambitious enough. “There is too much of an air of tame mediocrity about it, when what we need is courage and ambition,” he sniffed. Well, takes one to know one.

Mountain erupts

DECIDEDLY fewer smiles two days later at FMQs, as Nat Stuart McMillan used his question to attack Tory MSP Sir Edward Mountain. It followed Sir Ed asking shipping experts if a South Korean firm could have built two CalMac boats quicker than a Scottish yard which tried and failed big-time, costing taxpayers and extra £150m. Mr McMillan implied it was unpatriotic of Sir Ed, who furiously rumbled and fumed in his seat nearby. He has been renamed Mr Volcano.

Close watch

THE Politico website has just published a list of the “20 MPs to watch in 2020”. Scotland gets a couple of mentions. Swinson slayer Amy Callaghan is “marked out by SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon as a rising star” apparently. Also namechecked is former Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill. Westminster Nats could “benefit from his long memory”, it says. However the SNP has never been short of long memories. Ms Sturgeon and chums will never forget him for recently putting the odds of Indyref2 soon at ‘likely nil”, for instance.

Luncheon meet

HOLYROOD’S press pack jetted off to Brussels this week to mark the final countdown to Brexit. Hacks used the opportunity to quiz tight-lipped EU officials on the prospects of an independent Scotland rejoining the bloc. “One final technical point just on Scotland’s re-entry,” a journalist piped up at the end of an interminable lunch, at which the issue was raised repeatedly. “You’ll be back by the time this lunch is over,” a weary official shot back.