SO near and yet so far for perpetual Tory candidate Iain McGill, who finally made into Holyrood as the subject of a photography exhibition on Monday. Alas, parly bosses rapidly removed it in case it looked like a plug for the Edinburgh North & Leith hopeful. All that remains is a blank wall, surely a fitting metaphor for his political career.

MR McGill doesn’t have much luck on Twitter either. After tweeting a campaign snap, he was slagged off by a young Leither who said she’d never seen a Tory on her street. “Good yin, this Tory was your postman!” he said, parading his proletarian roots. “Aye, you’ll just have to go back to delivering my mail then,” came the reply.

NOT the best start for SNP Glasgow North East candidate Anne McLaughlin. Her office sent out a flyer for her launch event calling her “Anne McLaughling”, followed by a crudely altered correction. Mind you, not as bad as Labour’s Matt Kerr. According to his leaflets, he reckons he’s standing in somewhere called “Glagsow”.

RUTH Davidson was in London on Monday to address the George Orwell Foundation. Not that she’s still bitter about the EU referendum, but she slipped in a swipe at Boris Johnson. “George Orwell was a guardian of language and democracy,” she told her audience. “He was also an old Etonian - and I’ve had a few run-ins with them over the years.” Cripes!