The above are the names of Sarah Palin’s children, though the procession sounds like an old-fashioned forward line.

She is governor of Alaska.

And now she might be Vice-President of the US.

OK, Alaska’s only got a small population; but the US? She’ll only be a heartbeat away from the whole shooting match (which given her proclivities it might well end up as.)

But never mind her politics; would you let someone who calls her children names like these run the proverbial whelk stall?

(And before anyone asks, yes, I would feel the same about a man whose children were similarly lumbered.)

So. Labour’s sacrificial lamb is to be Lindsay Roy.

Well, he’s a headmaster; so he’ll be no stranger to the dark arts of politicking.

But; a Fife headmaster, a member of the Labour Party? Gosh!

David Milliband wrote a piece for the Guardian some weeks ago which was instantly proclaimed by the press as a leadership bid.

Alastair Darling gives the Guardian an interview at the weekend and it’s seen as a (political) suicide bid.

Isn’t it a possibility that both of these were actually neither?

In a less febrile world than these politicos and their attendant journalists inhabit these comments might have been perceived as unexceptionable.

All quiet on the Labour leadership front in Scotland. (Well, if they’re making a noise I’ve not heard it.)
Still oor Tavish has become the Lib Dem leader.
Will J Arthur McNumpty be pleased?

The recent death of MP John MacDougall has meant a by-election is now due in a constituency next door to the one I live in.
Scottish Labour is in disarray, with a leadership election to distract the members, and the SNP is riding high.
My wife has relatives in Glenrothes and even before the result in Glasgow East they were saying a lot of local people were going to vote SNP next time. Sadly for Mr MacDougall’s family the time has arrived sooner than expected.
This, remember, is effectively the constituency which elected the staunchly anti-monarchist and utterly Labour MP Willie Hamilton for so many years and parts of which even returned communist local councillors once upon a time but it may be now another poisoned chalice for the Labour candidate. Who is going to be their sacrificial lamb, a la Margaret Curran, this time?
Labour will no doubt put great effort into retaining the seat but I expect the momentum carried over from Glasgow East should carry the SNP through.