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FMQs Sketch: Brandy or bananas?

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon

Leaders’ questions can be a gruelling experience, even for the most seasoned of political hands.

Harold Macmillan used to throw up before facing the opposition.

Harold Wilson used to take a brandy beforehand. Margaret Thatcher preferred a Scotch.

Even Tony Blair partook in a Rocky-like ritual of sleep and bananas before stepping-up to the despatch box.

Of course, First Minister’s Questions does not have the ruthless cut-and-thrust of its sister event in Westminster.

The speeches are less biting, the wit slightly slower, the proceedings more civil, the braying less liquid lunch, more Sunday school.

It nevertheless remains, however, a spectacle – and an important one too. It is the public moment, the prime physical manifestation, of the government being held to account.

Or it is normally.

Nicola Sturgeon could surely not have wished for an easier question than the third at FMQs.

Lodged by Linda Fabiani, it asked “what progress” has been made on the fiscal framework.

Eh?

Political spectacles are, of course, no stranger to planted questions, particularly from eager backbenchers.

And, in fairness, the questions have to lodged on Monday, before a deal was agreed. But that is why members have the option to withdraw them – an option that was not taken.

The result? Valuable time that could have been spent scrutinising the government was lost.

Just moments earlier, Ms Sturgeon looked like a new-born lamb on a rocky slope, stumbling under tenacious questioning from Tory leader Ruth Davidson about the failure to deliver CAP payments.

That exchange followed an even more heated match between the First Minister and Labour counterpart Kezia Dugdale on cuts to council services.

But – despite those moments – FMQs was an easy ride for Ms Sturgeon.

If she takes a Scotch beforehand, it is surely just for pleasure.