Upside Down

Returning from witnessing another dismal Scottish performance at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff at the weekend, I seem to have returned to a different place that I left. On Friday I ventured out of Edinburgh and embarked on a long (environmentally friendly!) train trip to Wales. When I left, Wendy Alexander's dodgy dealings had been whitewashed, Gordon Brown understood what he meant by "British" and the Liberal Democrats hated anything illiberal & undemocratic. What a difference a couple of days make.

It seems far from being over, Wendy's troubles look to be getting worse - and this time, no one can say it is not in the public interest to prosecute. Apparently Wendy raised funds to the tune of £12,000 by inviting donors to two events organised to aid the economic development of Renfrewshire. Apparently the only aiding that this money did was to help Wendy get re-elected. Now she must wish she hadn't bothered.

In spite of these problems, there appears to be no worries for wee Wendy. Brother Douglas will surely put in a good word for her, and with her friends in the Electoral Commission, she's bot so much the Teflon Taoiseach, more a Whitewash Wendy sort.

But she's not the only Labour leader to make a gaffe this weekend. As the row over the Archbishop of Canterbury's comments on Sharia law continues to rumble on, the Prime Minister has waded into the argument. Only he seems to forgotten who he is and where he comes from. The PM, as part of his crusade to make everything "British" has claimed that "British law would be based on British values".

Clearly being the PM messes with your mind. For not only is it particularly difficult in this multicultural society to define values which are inherently "British", there is no such thing as British law. As a Scot, Mr Brown must surely know that Scots Law is remarkably different from its English counterpart. Maybe he should ask Ms Alexander for confirmation , given the effective "not proven" verdict she was handed by the Electoral Commission last week - a verdict which would not be available in an English court.

Finally, in the week after the Lib Dems in Scotland spent much of their time attacking the Conservatives for voting for Scotland's budget it seems their leader at Westminster has decided to call a truce, and has declared that the Lib Dems may support a minority Tory Government after the next election, were the chance to occur. I wonder if he's sent Tavish Scott a copy of the memo?

And they wonder why Scotland voted SNP in May.