Summary
THERE are some sounds that set the teeth on edge, and I don't just mean the squeak of chalk on blackboard. My own personal bugbear is that ghastly, braying "hyah, hyah, hyah" noise emitted by the House of Commons when all its members agree on some weighty matter; a self-congratulatory rumble which usually indicates that the British political class is about to make a colossal error of judgment.
But of all the nasty sounds in British politics, there can have been few more straightforwardly unpleasant than that wild, raucous cheer of applause that burst from the floor of this week's SNP conference in Aviemore at the news that Lord Watson of Invergowrie - aka Mike Watson, former MSP for Glasgow Cathcart - had been sent to prison for 16 months over the notorious incident in which he set fire to some curtains at Prestonfield House Hotel in Edinburgh. Heaven knows, Watson's actions that night were criminal as well as pathetic, and his failure to admit his guilt for several weeks was feeble and foolish.See the full content of this document
Extract
Party Animals Too Beastly for Public Service
But Watson is now a totally humiliated man, exposed in public as little more than an overgrown, disturbed teenager; and the sight of someone being vigorously kicked when he is down is never attractive, however much he deserved to be...
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