You take the high road and I'll take the dry bolk

While Nicola Sturgeon was aiming digs at Wendy Alexander in the debating chamber yesterday referring to the Labour leader’s “right to remain silent”, Irvine Welsh was throwing up an interesting tack on our right to get completely blootered on any given day.

Either situation is one I don’t feel altogether comfortable with.

I did worry that Wendy’s problems could in a way backfire for the SNP. The Nationalists just couldn’t help themselves and went for a few too many cheap shots resulting in Alex Fergusson reminding Nicola to focus on the topic under debate.

I don’t think it really matters what the crime is for one party but once the other side becomes ‘smarmy’ then you begin to take the sting out of the very problems you are attempting to exacerbate for your political foes. Taking the high road is generally a preferable route on such things. I also see that today Alex Salmond is calling for Wendy to resign and consequently attempting to keep the story in the press.

Maybe Alex and Nicola are sensing the same thing that I am, that this donorgate “scandal” has run its course and the media and the public at large are only disingenuously concerned now. Their attempts to fan a dying flame may end up making them look a bit silly.

In saying that, Labour can always have ways of fanning their own dying flames themselves. Question Time was interesting last night, a debate that Douglas Alexander had to miss due to family issues. This was an excuse that is either convenient or inconvenient depending on the severity/existence of the supposed problems. Of course if there’s a genuine issue then I hope it gets sorted quickly but forgive me my “Boy who cried wolf” scepticism on this one.


And so on to Irvine Welsh, who would prefer to see George W go out snorting cocaine and getting smashed on occasion as opposed to having an uptight tee-totalling president who likes blowing countries up every now and again.

It was an interesting take on things. By and large we have the right to go out and get a bit sozzled whenever we fancy and frankly it’s difficult to disagree with the man. Then again, we also have the right not to have our cars smashed in and the living daylights beaten out of us by random drunk morons but I guess Irvine conveniently chose to paint a rosier picture of your average Scottish drunk.

Or maybe I’m just saying that as I’ve decided to have an alcohol-free Friday for a change….