Some are known to enjoy a drink on the train home to Glasgow on a Thursday night, the end of the long parliamentary week.
Now two Labour MSPs and former ministers have taken to ordering a couple of "Gail Sheridans" from the ScotRail refreshment trolley - in honour of the miniature bottles favoured by Tommy's missus.
]]> Tommy is teetotal. So no chance he'll be ordering a "Johann Lamont" or a "Margaret Curran," then. ]]>The local government committee's findings, published yesterday, have sparked a bitter war of words between the parties.
More of that later. First, a look at some of the conclusions.
The 55-page report says Alex Salmond showed "exceptionally poor judgement" over his role in Donald Trump's application for a £1billion golf resort in his Gordon constituency.
]]> MSPs said the First Minister was "cavalier," "extremely unwise" and showed a "worrying lack of awareness" that his involvement could jeopardise the high profile scheme.They called for clearer rules on the role ministers should play in planning applications to avoid future schemes being put at risk.
The MSPs also questioned the reasons Salmond gave for getting involved in the plans and they criticised John Swinney for calling in the plans on the basis of two five-minute phone calls.
A quick reminder of the background.
The probe was launched following the government's unprecedented decision to call in the planning application after it was thrown out by Aberdeenshire Council last November.
The Trump Organisation refused to appeal saying they wanted a "more streamlined" process.
It emerged that Alex Salmond met Trump's representatives on December 3 and fixed up a meeting with the government's top planning official the next day.
Following that meeting, the chief planner recommended calling in the plans to give ministers the final say.
John Swinney, the minister responsible, agreed the same afternoon. The committee said it was not "appropriate" for him to take such a big decision on the basis of two five minute phone calls.
The case led to claims ministers gave the application an unfair advantage.
But ministers insist that all contacts with officials and Trump's representatives were legitimate.
Yesterday's report said Salmond's role could leave the plans open to legal challenge if they are eventually approved.
The report said: "It seems astonishing to accept that the first minister did not perceive there might be a risk in his actions, that his actions might be open to question and that as a consequence the decision might be open to legal action.
"The committee believes that, far from taking a precautionary approach, the First Minister was cavalier in his actions and displayed, at best, exceptionally poor judgement and a worrying lack of awareness about the consequences of his actions."
The report added it was "extremely unwise" of Salmond to fix up a meeting between Trump's people and the planning chief.
MSPs also dismissed Salmond's claim that it was his "bounden duty" to meet the developers in his role as local MSP and that the meeting was about planning procedures.
The report said: "It was not his bounden duty. He had no particular expertise in relation to planning law or processes.
"The committee believes that the true purposes of the Trump Organisation's meetings with Alex Salmond and the Chief Planner on December 3 and 4 was not to seek advice about legal processes but to emphasise the Trump Organisation's position."
The committee was not unanimous, far from it.
The three SNP MSPs on the committee refused to endorse the findings. Cue the war of words I mentioned earlier.
Tory committee member David McLetchie commented: "This was a high stakes game of poker.
"The Trump Organisation was bluffing when it said it would not appeal and should have been told to do so if it was dissatisfied with the decision.
"However, instead of calling this bluff, Alex Salmond and John Swinney folded their cards in their haste to appease Mr Trump.
"In so doing they undermined the integrity of the planning system in Scotland and called into question the impartiality of the Scottish government in determining applications."
But SNP committee member Bob Doris said, in effect, the report was just a hatchet job based on politics, not evidence.
He said: "Throughout this inquiry we have seen the opposition pursue a political vendetta in the face of clear and incontrovertible evidence.
"Some of the comments in the report are ludicrous. This inquiry was an utter waste of valuable parliamentary time."
That theme was picked up Salmond's spin doctors. One dismissed the most damning charges as "verbiage".
The battle, on exactly the same lines, spilled onto Radio Scotland and Newsnight Scotland last night. So who is winning?
Salmond's supporters are quite right to point out the committee did not find any breach of the rules.
But they cannot pretend the conclusions are merely "political" and, by implication, worthless.
They may disagree with the interpretation but the inquiry discovered significant fresh evidence. Contacts between the First Minister, the Trump Organisation, their layers, and the government's chief planner were much closer than anyone suspected before the inquiry.
As a result of those contacts, the committee believes, there is a danger that objectors will challenge the decision in the courts if the plans eventually get the go-ahead.
If so, it would be a spectacular own goal by the First Minister.
Donald Trump has already voiced his dismay that, instead of the "streamlined" process he hoped for, a lengthy public inquiry will be held. The prospect of a court case after that might prove the final straw for him.
We'll have to see what happens.
But there are lessons for future large-scale planning applications to be learned from the committee's inquiry. MSPs were right conduct the probe. And the SNP MSPs now trying to portray it as a waste of parliamentary time are the ones who are playing politics.
]]>To recap, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill wants two things to ease the growing pressure on Scotland's overcrowded jails.
First, he wants to let prisoners out of jail, with an electronic tag, six months before they are due for release instead of four-and-a-half months under present HDC rules.
Second, he wants to extend the scheme to include long-term prisoners - those serving over four years - for the first time.
]]>Holyrood's justice committee blocked the plans earlier this month after raising safety fears.
But, undaunted, MacAskill returned to parliament this week in a bid to overturn the committee's decision.
He got his way on the first plan.
But he was thwarted on the second after confused Lib Dem MSPs voted the wrong way.
Oddly, the result was exactly what the Daily Record called for: let lower-risk prisoners out a bit earlier but keep hardened crooks locked up.
We said that was the compromise MSPs should reach to reflect fears over public safety. In the end it was cock-up, not compromise, but a good result all the same.
]]>He was due to speak at the conference dinner but pulled out on Friday evening.
Some Lib Dems, including a party spokesman, were under the impression he was ill.
But according to his constituency office he had to rush back to London to oversee work on his house which had run into problems.
His wife, Sarah, was out of the country, so no more Aviemore for Charlie.
]]>He was facing flak for calling them the scruffiest people in Europe and bizarrely blaming Sir Tom Hunter for selling them shellsuits.
But yesterday he said his words were "a challenge" to young people.
He suggested - and I think I followed his argument here - that young people train as renewable energy engineers because North Sea oil is running out.
He told me: "And do remember - and no-one on your newspaper did - that I wrote the standard history of North Sea oil, so I know what I'm talking about."
He also said of young people: "They've got their problems. I would say I don't want to be aggressive towards them."
And he insisted sportswear "doesn't seem to be working" as Scots were the most obese nation in Europe.
Any more gaffes from the professor (and it would be a brave man who bet against that) and Alex Salmond will come under real pressure to sack him as one of his parliamentary liaison officers.
]]>The controversial SNP MSP landed himself in hot water this week with ill-judged comments on Scotland's young people - the scruffiest in Europe - and the town of Lockerbie - "a dump".
But his outspoken style will come as no surprise to those unfortunate souls who have waded through his regular blogs.
The tweed-wearing professor rails against modern life week in, week out.
]]>His favourite targets include the media, the Labour Party - which he used to campaign for - and ordinary people in general.
But at least he is not afraid to reveal his pompous and vain side in his ramblings. Here are some recent examples:
* Harvie on the environment:
"En-vir-on-ment" is a long word: too many syllables for Sun or Daily Record journalists.
"The Germans use Umwelt - "world-around" - which any primary school kid can understand."
* Harvie on Alex Salmond's visit to the States.
"Scotland's first minister is back from America. A homecoming, in both directions."
* Harvie on Alex Salmond:
"A class brew, not something gaseous flogged by PR men."
* Harvie on Gordon Brown:
"A barrow boy."
* Harvie on DJ Chris Moyles:
"A slobbish unshaven crouton."
* Harvie on the 40th birthday of Radio One:
"It's 40 years since the Third Programme was ended to accommodate pop and disc-jockeys, so honest ill-will is in order."
* Harvie on the BBC:
"It's time to break up the BBC and establish a Scottish Broadcasting Corporation.
"BBC Scotland has a big new headquarters on the Clyde, but far less is going on there than in the old rambling Queen Margaret Drive."
* Harvie on the Daily Record and Sun:
"Scotland's tabloids, the Record and the Sun, amaze by surviving. The direst popular press in Europe."
* Harvie on the Herald and Scotsman:
"Too much on restaurants, houses, sports at which we're no good, recycled business PR handouts, features on modestly-talented totty."
* Harvie on Big Brother contestants:
"Dolts."
* Harvie on US tycoon Donald Trump:
"Legendarily tortuous finances."
* Harvie on London:
"Like most things to do with contemporary Britain, London is hollow."
* Harvie on the economy:
"The British economy seems increasingly to be in an endgame, and it's necessary to look for ways out."
* Harvie on the Iraq war:
"Pointless".
* Harvie on British culture:
"We seem only united in being the drink, drugs, debt, sex, obesity and obscenity champions of the continent, and pretty miserable with it."
* Harvie on obesity:
"Already the Americans and the Scots share one unenviable record as the globe's fattest folk: comfort eating for the losers, eternally identified with a pair of feuding Scots clans: Campbell's soups and McDonalds burgers."
* Harvie on a federal Britain.
"In my Labour Party days I published a Fabian Tract Number 484: Against Metropolis (1983) proposing a German-style federation for the UK.
"It got nowhere, because no-one was interested."
* Harvie on scrapping the Scotland Office:
"Why doesn't Holyrood demand a House of Scotland? Something like a Scottish High Commission in London?
"Dover House - headquarters of the Scotland Office - is charmer of Old Whitehall. In its bedrooms in 1817 Byron had pleasured Lady Caroline Lamb."
* Harvie on the Navy's planned Scots-built aircraft carriers.
"The 62,000 ton aircraft-carriers will cost £4billion, and God knows what will be blown on Trident Two. Neo-imperial Viagra costs."
* Harvie on becoming an MSP:
"Mornings at Holyrood. The new boys are clustering, shy and unsure, as if in the corridors of some Victorian public school, aware that two of every three are Flashmen, out to get you."
* Harvie on himself:
"Alex Salmond, our first minister, shows me off as his professor, a bijou version of CP Snow joining Harold Wilson's government in 1964."
* Harvie on his own national identity:
"I could see myself as German, Welsh or English as well as Scots, but not British, save in a vaguely Scandinavian or Iberian sense."
* Harvie on his defeat by Labour in the Kirkcaldy seat (he was elected as a list MSP).
"I missed the constituency by 2,500 after a 50 per cent increase in our vote. Marilyn Livingstone, who seemed to be related to most of her electorate, got back."
* Harvie on supermarkets:
"I've lived in Europe for 25 years - in Tübingen we have four markets a week and nothing bigger than your average Lidl or Aldi - and I've seen nothing like Tescotland. It can't be sustained."
* Harvie on Scots' reading habits:
"Orwell's prediction in 1984 that writing machines would grind out semi-pornography for his proles seems petty well borne out, as a glance at supermarket or airport dump-bins would show.
"Real crime, chick-lit, militaria, motormouth Clarkson and so on."
Alexander received vital backing from the Prime Minister at the weekend for her plans to look afresh at the devolution settlement 10 years on.
Vital because she has staked her political credibility on the move.
]]>It is easy to forget this - because at the time she was up to her eyes in the dodgy donation scandal - but the commission was her first big policy announcement after becoming Scots Labour leader.
And it's not just a matter of political expediency for her.
She firmly believes it is right that Holyrood should be more accountable for the £30billion it has to spend.
That could mean taxes being raised by MSPs for the first time or specific taxes assigned to Scotland, thereby giving the government a bigger incentive to grow the economy and increase the tax take.
Gordon Brown accepted there is an "issue" here in interviews with the Daily Record and BBC on Saturday.
He was typically cautious about the possible outcome of the review but his spinners insist he is ready to consider giving Holyrood more financial power.
Time will tell.
Politically, Brown had no choice but to back the review and back it strongly. Not doing so would have shattered Alexander's leadership.
She would have fatally undermined and, in effect, left keeping the Scottish leader's seat warm until a successor could be found. A dead woman walking.
Given that background, it's not surprising many commentators remain sceptical about the Prime Minister's level of commitment to the review.
Next week's meeting will be closely scrutinised for clues.
* Still on the commission/review. Which is it?
There has been a lot of talk about the language Gordon Brown used at the weekend. He has avoided using Alexander's title "constitutional commission" and instead refers to the process a "review".
The SNP have read a lot into this, taking it as evidence the process has been "downgraded" and will be dictated by MPs not MSPs.
But Alexander's proposal was always for a cross-party, cross-border initiative. It has to be - any changes would have to be approved by Westminster.
Whatever it's called, the initiative seems pretty close to what Alexander outlined in her St Andrew's Day speech last year.
]]>The report says one of the taskforce's successes has been its "Vulnerables Team," set up to "provide support to those vulnerable to involvement in ASB".
Let's enjoy that one more time: "those vulnerable to involvement in ASB". That would be "neds," "thugs" or "yobs" in the real world.
]]>Or did they, in the words of Tory finance spokesman Derek Brownlee, walk into "an elephant trap of their own making".
Or were they trying to be too clever by half - and just ended up looking confused?
]]> I'm told that's how Iain Gray now sees the hideous fallout from Labour's bizarre refusal to back their own budget amendment.Certainly, the Nats believed they had caught Labour in a trap.
An hour before the vote, with the Tories bought off, the Greens appeased and result already safely in the bag, Swinney had the luxury of plotting how best to skewer Labour.
He had a choice.
He could accept the uncontroversial "reasoned" Labour amendment asking the government to find ways to boost skills training and protect vulnerable groups.
If he did, Labour might back his budget.
But, after Alex Salmond's dramatic threat to call a snap election, they could then be accused of running scared of facing the SNP at the polls.
If Swinney rejected Labour's amendment and they voted against the budget, he could also
embarrass them.
Labour would be attacked as the party who voted against the SNP's council tax freeze, giving the Nats three years of high explosive political ammo.
In the end it didn't work out quite like that.
Swinney accepted the amendment. But Labour then abstained in the 5pm vote.
Labour finance spokesman Iain Gray claimed their amendment would force an explanation from ministers on what they were doing to boost skills and protect vulnerable groups - that was the "gain" - but, overall, the budget was still not good enough for them to support.
That logic fell on deaf ears. Labour looked to have fudged it. The Nats claimed it was "bizarre" and, worryingly for Wendy Alexander, a good few Labour MSPs agreed with them.
Without that final amendment, Labour could have abstained and no-one would have batted an eyelid.
So perhaps Derek Brownlee - who had a good budget day - was right: the trap was of Labour's own making.
]]>The contest was won by Jack McConnell - who has been offered a job as Britain's next High Commissioner to the African country - and his team from Holyrood Magazine.
]]> Well done to organisers Karen Gillon and Trisha Marwick. The event raised £700 for an educational project which will be named after the late Margaret Ewing.]]>He reassured them that the start-dates for the Navy's biggest warships has not been put back because of pressure on the MoD's tight budget.
]]> That's good news for shipbuilders on the Clyde and at Rosyth, who will be building sections of the giant carriers.But Browne also used the meeting to take a swipe at Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP MSP for Glasgow Govan.
She promised to make high level representations when fears over the carrier contracts were first raised. Browne said she has neither written to nor phoned the UK Government.
]]>The excuse - let's face it, that's what it is - is the appearance of a magnificently garish pottery cockerel in a newspaper's office at Holyrood.
The statuette, and a matching hen, have taken pride of place on top of a filing cabinet.
They used to belong to former Glasgow Baillieston MP Jimmy Wray and were the "star" prize in a raffle at a Labour bash before the 2005 election, when the former boxer stood down from Westminster.
It's great they have finally gone on display.
]]>To recap. The government proposed some pretty big increases at the start of a consultation last year. They were justified on the basis they would allow councils to cover the costs of running the licensing system.
]]> Councils used the consultation to call for even higher fees. MacAskill duly doubled the proposed amounts, to the dismay of the pub trade.In committee, he defended his decision to side with the councils but he failed to explain why the proposed fees needed to be doubled.
It didn't matter. He's on a crusade with this one - raising fees is part of his "polluter pays" attitude to the drinks industry - and there was no appetite around the committee table to challenge him.
I thought he did rather well. But perhaps that's because I don't drink when there is an "anuary" in the month.
]]>It could not have got off to a worse start for them.
Minutes before Salmond sat down in committee room one, Trump took to the airwaves to heap praise on Scotland's "amazing" First Minister and the "great service" his government has done by keeping his plans for a £1billion golf resort alive.
]]> That's the last thing you need as you prepare to explain that, no, you haven't got too close to the project and, no, you haven't shown it any preferential treatment.In the event, the FM and Finance Secretary came through the local government committee session unscathed, though further evidence of Salmond's close involvement with the scheme did emerge.
We knew he met Trump's people on December 3, the day before Swinney called in the plans, and we knew he phoned Jim Mackinnon, the government's chief planner, to see if he could meet the Trump team.
But it also emerged he made the call with Trump's people present and he handed the phone to the developer's right hand man George Sorial to fix up the meeting.
The meeting took place on December 4. Afterwards Mackinnon advised Swinney to call in the plans.
An interesting snippet for Trumpgate anoraks but it's clear the local government committee have not landed a killer blow over the course of two grillings.
However, that doesn't mean their eventual report will be uncritical.
The focus has shifted from Salmond's personal involvement to Swinney's decision to call in the plans and give the government the final say.
Remember, Aberdeenshire council's infrastructure committee had thrown out the plans but the Trump Organisation were refusing to appeal.
It was unprecedented for the government to step in under such circumstances.
Ministers had only a small window of legal opportunity to do it (in the time between the committee decision and the council sending Trump a letter to notify him formally) and Swinney acted on the basis of two five minute phone calls. That's unprecedented decisiveness.
The government claim they were saving council taxpayers' cash because there might have been an appeal.
They argue, given the full council's support for the project, that Aberdeenshire officials would not have defended the appeal, exposing the authority to legal costs running into six figures.
Not all MSPs are convinced by this claim.
The vast majority of Aberdeenshire councillors might support the Trump plan but they are just expressing a view - not making a planning decision.
For good or ill, the decision to reject the project was legitimately taken, on proper planning grounds, by the infrastructure committee.
So it is by no means certain that Aberdeenshire officials would have sided with Trump if it came to an appeal.
I suspect the sharper interrogators on the local government committee are sharpening their pens.
]]>Papers released under Freedom of Information laws show the government struggled to find a minister to host the event on October 15 last year.
Governors and agriculture chiefs from a number of Mid West states were in Scotland on a fact-finding trip.
]]> Scotland's top agriculture official, Richard Wakeford, was keen to entertain them. He sought, and was granted, special permission to use Bute House for a dinner. But could he find a minister to host it? Could he heck.Of the two most obvious choices, Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead was "unavailable" and Environment minister Michael Russell "on leave".
Wakeford's secretary then emailed their colleagues - but with no more luck.
Nicola Sturgeon, Bruce Crawford, Linda Fabiani and Fergus Ewing all politely turned down the invitation. And they were the ones who replied, at least according to the email trail released today. In all, 10 ministers were contacted.
Nothing wrong with the menu: Shetland smoked salmon, lavender marinated rump of lamb, all washed down with a 2004 Chablis. (The bill came to £2,082.46 for 16 people, by the way.)
But perhaps the come-on wasn't so tempting.
Officials 'sold' the dinner with the words: "We are loathe to miss an opportunity for this distinguished group of Mid Western leaders to better understand European dynamics and the potential for understanding new rural policy innovations as well as agri-environmental projects here in Scotland."
That's not screaming unmissable night out to me, though, in fairness, it was parliamentary recess and few ministers were around.
With no ministers stepping up to the plate the Director General Environment decided to host the dinner himself.
Invites were printed.
But at short notice Michael Russell found he was able to interrupt his leave and host the event.
Invites were reprinted, at a cost of £39.91.
Did Mike have his arm twisted? "Of course not," a source close to the First Minister told me.
* Still on the subject of dinners...
The same FOI request revealed the guest list for a dinner held for a group of US Congressmen, also at Bute House, on August 20.
Names included Sir John Elvidge, Scotland's top civil servant, and George Reid, former Holyrood presiding officer. Henry McLeish, the former first minister, was one of two "reserves".
** And more dinners...
I poured scorn on the notion that Wendy Alexander's dinner for a group of political hacks was green-lighted because the Electoral Commission were about to report back on her dodgy donation.
I think I was right to.
The watchdog was expected to say something last week, before the dinner, hence the speculation. Now I'm hearing they will not reveal their decision until next week, after Wendy's get-together.
Incidentally, they are refusing to comment on the rumour the decision has been delayed because a key official has gone on paternity leave. However, sources close to the investigation tell me it's true.
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