It seems Rishi Sunak doesn’t think Scots are grown-up enough to decide things for themselves, writes Iain Maciver.
If you’re at the table, just leave this to read later, after you have had your dessert, coffee and choccy biscuits. This topic is very serious and must be explained, but it is a bit yucky.
I was reading an article the other day about how to make sure you don’t get Lyme disease. It is becoming more common in places like Uist, for example.
Locals down there are signing up for courses to learn how to avoid catching that nasty skin condition, which you can get from ticks. You may not go anywhere near moorland where ticks live, but these wee beasties are often carried in the fur of some animals, like deer and rats.
And rats are everywhere. During lockdown, rats were finding less dropped food outside, so they became bolder and started to appear more often in houses around the UK. They are about the worst kind of pest you can think of. Yuck.
Mind you, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak must have thought that Colin Mackay from STV was a pest when they had a chat in Cromarty on Thursday.
Sunak denied he had discussed the next general election with the first minister, and turned it to what he wanted to say – which was nothing, really. “What we did talk about, though, is the things that we can do to deliver for people here in Scotland, by working constructively together.” Eh?
Sunak doesn’t think Scots are grown-up enough to make their own decisions
Even though denying Scotland’s right to determine its own future, and now interfering in our justice system and preventing the country from passing its own laws, he’s not budging.
Colin kept at him, and asked if he was ignoring democracy by refusing the potential mandate at a Westminster election. Nice one, Colin. Sunak bleated: “Absolutely not.” Colin kept at him on other issues, too.
Well @STVColin doesn’t hold back here… pic.twitter.com/FW1K3cqkTk
— Dino Sofos (@dinosofos) January 14, 2023
It was good news that he was announcing two freeports, completely overshadowed for most people by the fact that Sunak doesn’t think Scots are grown-up enough to decide things for ourselves. That’s what I took from it, anyway.
While his own health minister was sensibly suggesting that they should perhaps now sit down and discuss grievances of NHS unions, the PM was still aloof and apparently disinterested. No engagement. He was looking at Colin Mackay as if he was a nuisance, in the same way the German police looked at Greta Thunberg the other day before they hauled her away.
Flower of Scotland? Maybe not-land
Will people engage with former Labour leader Lord McConnell, who’s supporting calls to scrap Flower of Scotland as our national anthem? Various rugby players also said it made them cringe, and they called it an anti-English dirge.
I can see their point. It is not stirring, but hostile. We are better than that. The only question that remains is: what other ditty can be sung badly at 1.30am by Scots stumbling home from the pub?
That reminds me of a pub conversation I saw on TV some years ago. Was it a drama or a documentary? Can’t think.
Two guys were watching the pub telly, and the news had just finished. They agreed that the politicians who had just been on were full of hot air. One said: “Two years ago, my brother ran for parliament, you know.” His mate said: “Oh, really? What does he do now?” The first man replied: “Absolutely nothing. He got elected.”
Angy smelled a rat
Creel fisherman Kenneth Angus Macmillan is not full of hot air. Better known as Angy Beag in Leurbost, he has lost his drugs, his glasses and his goodies.
His boat, the 28ft June Rose, is always tied up in Crossbost Bay, just across from the church. He recently went aboard the June Rose and found that some necessities were missing. He believes someone – or something – was on the vessel, and made off with his glasses, his painkillers, his chocolates and his onboard specs.
Why would anyone take his specs? His own theory is that they needed them to read the expiry date on the tablets, and the eat-by date on the chocolates.
He has loads of experience of rats and their wily ways. You see, he used to have his own pet rat, called Elvis
He conducted his own investigation, and now concludes that the thieves were rats, and they’d climbed the anchor rope to get aboard. The chocolate, which the rats scoffed, was rum and raisin, so creative thinker Angy also has a theory they’d have a hangover and would need paracetamol.
Angy should know, because he has loads of experience of rats and their wily ways. You see, he used to have his own pet rat, called Elvis. It was well-known around nearby Cameron Terrace, where he previously lived. So, maybe it was his own Elvis who made off with his paracetamol?
Angy dismisses that immediately, and tells a mutual mate of ours that such a theory is the work of suspicious minds. He says: “Elvis? No, he died long ago. He was caught in a trap.”
Iain Maciver is a former broadcaster and news reporter from the Outer Hebrides
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