Alan Cochrane at the Telegraph is dreaming wistfully of the day when Alex Salmond finally comes a cropper: However, there are clear signs that Mr Salmond's run of success may be grinding to a halt. His plans to replace council tax with a local income tax has been widely ridiculed… read more…

Alex Salmond is painting himself with woad this morning and heading south for a memorable clash with Albion over the ownership of Berwick-upon-Tweed. A by-no-means scientific study has found that Berwickians would prefer shortbread, woolen scarves and higher public spending over stiff upper lips, mild S&M and lower public spending.… read more…

BONG! "No negotiating with Taliban" says Brown, who's also busy not negotiating with policemen and Mediterranean types who are hawking around a treaty-thingy. BONG! The police may strike. Yorkshire miners currently offering their services to government as replacement cover if needed. BONG! The public has spoken. The £50 million Big… read more…

BONG! If someone hasn't thought of that headline already, we're copyrighting it. Anyway, Dave put his Unionist T-shirt on in Edinburgh today, before nipping out to buy some Scottish wool and shortbread. We think our picture is more descriptive of the Tory-Scotland interface than another one of bloody Mel Gibson,… read more…

Fraser Nelson's got an interesting interview with Alex Salmond (Scotland's answer to Judge John Deed - he's a maverick, doncha know) in this week's Spectator. Inter alia, it's revealed that Alex quite wants the Tories to win the next election as there's more chance of the SNP winning a referendum on independence… read more…

Is being leader of the Opposition easy, we were asking last night in the pub? Yeah, we all know that being an MP is bloody hard work if you do it properly, and the higher you get, the more demands there are on you. So how has Davy Cameron made… read more…

Damp squib of the day: Miliband the Younger's Europe speech. Anybody else finding the tabloid habit of salaciously referring to a suspect in the Meredith Kercher murder as "Foxy Knoxy" - as if she's an actress in a porn movie - a little bizarre? Westmonster feels that this obsession with the… read more…

The SNP yesterday celebrated their first budget by reneging on most of the promises that put them in the position of power which entitles them to make it. The jibbing of the students over the non-wipeout of their debt was a particularly classy move ("uhhh, it might be a bit… read more…

Poor Jacqui Smith's getting a bit of a drubbing in the papers this morning over the latest immigration scandal to hit the Home Office. The Telegraph takes her to task for failing to station pitchfork-wielding mobs on the white cliffs of Dover, the Independent takes a broad look at… read more…

BONG! And the big news that's moistening up the Telegraph team is the announcement that Davy wants to declare Scotland part of the Axis of Evil. We're shaky on the details but we're guessing that it's a firm policy proposal to deal with these Scottish people who are taking our money,… read more…

Because political discourse can never have too many Simpsons analogies, allow Westmonster to draw her readers' attentions to this episode where Homer decides to run for the position of Sanitation Commissioner. He wins a landslide, under the slogan "Can't Someone Else Do It?" and a manifesto commitment that his garbage men will… read more…

The Gord's woes were many at the beginning of the week, and by the end they were legion. A particularly irritating leit motif for Brown was the fact that Anthony Seldon's new book on Blair hit the shelves over the weekend, so the PM's parade was further rained upon by various reminiscences of… read more…

The debate's underway in the blogosphere over the Gould report into Scottish elections released yesterday. Iain Dale: "Douglas Alexander has Blood On His Hands and should resign!" Kezia Dugdale, however, has not only read the report but appears to be a bit of an expert in these matters agrees that… read more…

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… read more…

BONG! And so, the backlash cometh. So far Brown has been called yellow, a feartie, frit, and been accused of bottling it. As Westmonster is out and about today, she doesn't know for sure at what point Brown uttered his traditional "we are more concerned with getting on with the business of running… read more…

There's a story over at Iain Dale's about how Alex Salmond is considering standing against the Gord, should he call a snap election. Iain's unsure as to whether this is an advisable course of action, as it might undermine the standing of a "serious statesman" and is a tactic more suited… read more…