High drama at Holyrood

Those troubled by the recent allegations by the Normster on the subject of the death of David Kelly can at least rest assured that the authoritarian hand of the Government wasn't behind the scientist's death: according to the Gould report they can't even organise a piss-up in a brewery an election in Scotland.

Most interesting is the conspicuous absence of the SNP's resident Judge John Deed - Alex Salmond - who had previously promised to hold an independent judicial inquiry into the fiasco.

It's worth remembering that in at least one seat the number of spoilt ballots numbered perilously close to the toppled Labour majority. Hmmm. The man who don't care what those Whitehall people say, he's going to do politics his way has merely confined himself to saying of the report that it raises "very serious issues."

Of course, inferring that had the comrades emerged as the largest party, m'lud would be banging on the table and questioning their democratic legitimacy would be deeply uncharitable, so Westmonster wouldn't dream of it.