Drumlanrig: Wishart’s referendum advice hits wrong note

THE walls of Drumlanrig Towers often shake to the beat of modern popular music. My Status Quo collection is second to none and I know almost all of the words to Gangnam Style by Psy (picture) which, even three years after everyone else stopped listening to it, I play every morning as I have my bowl of Alpen.

But my very favourite popular music group of all time is, of course, Scotland’s very own Runrig, whose blend of overbearing bombast and stomach-churning sentimentality seems to capture beautifully our modern politics.

So I was very pleased to learn this week that the band’s former keyboard player, Pete Wishart, now an SNP MP in another life, had been given the chairmanship of the Scottish Affairs Committee in the House of Commons.

He’s an inspiring fellow, Wishart. Who could forget his message to voters in advance of last year’s independence referendum?

“This is our moment, our time,” he wrote, before adding, poetically, “let’s cease it.”

Shandy wasn’t a kindness for Kennedy

A SAD day on Friday, as the late Charles Kennedy was laid to rest.

In the end the former Lib Dem MP couldn’t defeat the bottle and, like so many Scots, paid the price.

But even in his darkest times, he rarely lost his sense of humour.

When it became known some years ago that Charles had a problem, he was met with great sympathy from many constituents, including one who greeted him on a Fort William street with the reassurance that he was right behind him in his fight to regain his health.

Charles, who’d been sober for a spell, thanked the constituent for his kindness.

“Oh, nae bother, Charlie,” said the fellow.

“Anyway, can I buy you a drink?” Patiently, Charles explained that probably wasn’t a good idea.