SOMETHING has got into Richard Leonard. Not talent or a personality, but definitely something. He could barely restrain himself at FMQs, boinging up and down as if he was on a spring while arguing over council finance. A sort of Dick-in-the-box, if you will.
Perhaps it was watching the herring-flavoured gubbing of Jackson Carlaw. The interim Tory leader unwisely chose to sail into the political headwind by talking Brexit and fish.
What did Nicola Sturgeon think was best - Theresa May’s Brexit deal on fish, or sticking with the hated CFP in Europe?
The FM thanked him for “an early Christmas present,” and pointed out both he and Ruth Davidson had backed Remain and thus the CFP too.
Mrs May’s deal showed that “just as they did on the UK’s way into the EU, the Tories are selling out Scottish fishermen on the way out,” she said.
Floundering, Mr Carlaw cited the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation in his defence. SNP MSPs groaned like rigging. Many see the Federation as just a bunch of oilskin Tories.
Mr Sturgeon replied with a quote from the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation.
“I really wouldn’t trust the Tories as far as I could throw them. Whenever it comes to fishing, it’s always been a sacrificial lamb,” one member had memorably declared.
Mr Carlaw huffily accused her of “pompous outrage”.
Known to enjoy a pomposity monopoly at Holyrood, he was drowned by a wave of laughter.
He briefly surfaced to urge Ms Sturgeon not to throw Mrs May’s Brexit deal over the side.
“The redder Jackson Carlaw’s face gets and the more he points wildly across the chamber, the more trouble he is in,” scoffed Ms Sturgeon. “The Prime Minister cannot even persuade her own party to back it.” Mr Carlaw sank for a third time beneath the foam.
Then the Leaping Leonard of Leeds did his Zebedee bit.
The SNP was “taking Tory austerity and quadrupling” he declared, starting to bob.
Families were worried about school cuts, he fumed, jabbing and bouncing ever faster.
Is that fair? howled the oscillating Socialist from the midst of a grainy blur. Is it fair?
It was all very odd.
Willie Rennie asked why the FM wanted to “compromise” with Mrs May on a Norway Brexit, not fight to be in the EU.
“Willie Rennie must have been asleep over the past two years,” she sighed. Asleep through Brexit? That would be even better than Christmas.
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