Lamontations

There being no shortage of candidates for the position of Jeremiah.

I remember when Private Eye called Johann Lamont "Mr Lamont", and apologised in the following issue "to her and to the late Ms Johann Sebastian Bach".

Why is she "Lammont" when Norman Lamont (a Shetland surgeon's son) is "La Mont"? Is that a regional thing, or a class thing, or what?

If Holyrood is now the focal point, then that necessitates the removal, at least from any frontline role, of Lamont and of a good many other people, in favour of Gordon Brown, or Alistair Darling, or Jim Murphy, or Anas Sarwar.

Notice that no one whose name is in the frame is a Member of the Scottish Parliament, or ever has been.

"Leader of the whole party in Scotland", she thought. Then the General Secretary of the Scottish Labour Party was sacked without anyone's even bothering to tell her, still less ask her.

That probably could not have been done if the Leader had been any member of the House of Commons, and certainly not if the Leader had been Gordon Brown, or Alistair Darling, or Jim Murphy, or Anas Sarwar.

Speaking of Sarwar, his father, who was his predecessor as the MP for Glasgow Central, is now the Governor of the Pakistani Punjab. That is where Edinburgh's Mohammad Ashgar is being held. If you need to, then look him up.

Never mind that Sarwar the Younger is privately schooled. That so are his own children is perhaps more pertinent. But the real story is this.