Posted by Bonnie on 24 April 2007 at
12:00
Tipping the Velvet star Rachael Stirling made a flying visit to Scotland yesterday to back the party launched by her dad earlier this year.
The star of the historical drama was handing out leaflets supporting her dad Archie, who has joined forces with NHSFirst for the Scottish Voice party. They are fielding 15 candidates in the election.
Rachael, 29, currently appearing in The Taming Of The Shrew, in London, said: "I am very proud of my pa who, at a time in his life when he would rather be playing golf, has put his head above the parapet and said to our politicians at Holyrood, 'This is just not good enough.'
"He is brave and defiant and an object lesson to us all. I had to come up for the day to show my support."
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Posted by Bonnie on 24 April 2007 at
12:00
As his campaign to be elected to the Scottish Parliament continues apace, former newspaper man — and more recently, Press Gazette Scottish correspondent — Hamish Mackay, really ought to give up the fags….
Although I constantly carp about my esteemed leader, Archie Stirling's lack of political nous and utter ignorance of the dark skills of Machiavellianism, there's obviously nothing wrong with his genes.
Archie and his winsome actress daughter, Rachael, the offspring of his marriage to the actress, Diana Rigg, are splashed all over the public press on the stump in Stirling (sic) yesterday.
This will surely at last bring a faint smile to our two greetin', grim -faced media advisers, Gordon Hay and Ian McKerron, who are constantly pressing me for exclusives which I am adamantly keeping up my sleeve for my own bunch of admiring sycophantic political hacks.
Still, the dreadful duo should probably get a bigger slice of Rachael Stirling's exquisite cherry cake today as a reward for getting something right at last.
The dosh-laden SNP took grossly expensivecolour advertisements in some newspapers yesterday to reveal the names of a 100 members of the business community who are rooting for it.
Anguished that my good friend, Stewart Spence, mine host of the five-star Marcliffe at Pitfodel Hotel and Spa in Aberdeen, whom I advise on media matters in my day-time job, is amongst them (fortunately for Stewart, he's abroad on holiday), I scan the list for other names which I might know.
Lo and behold there's a Hamish Mackay and a Neil Mackay ( my old man's name). Thank you, Kevin Pringle, for the plug, but where on earth is my shares dividend from Scotia Cars?
I am bound for the Aros Centre on Skye on Thursday night to give yet another brilliant hustings polemic on a panel which includes the SNP's Mike Russell, who is no mean scribbler and oratorical bore himself. It will be a good opportunity to renew my love/hate relationship with the querulous Lesley Riddoch, who, like myself, has Caithness roots, and is also now a teetotaller, and can bore for Britain about it.
The feisty Lesley is chairing the meeting …and I am determined to take no bossy boots nonsense from this daunting dame. My cunning plan is be briefed by Rachel Stirling, over a large latte, on her current role in 'The Taming of the Shrew', in London's West End, for a tip or two.
The West Highland Free Press informs me the event will also feature musical entertainment (yippee), and entry is free …although booking a seat is advisable? Boo! That means I will actually have to speak to nit-picking voters who keep putting their oar in about how they could run Scotland better than Archie and I — moaning about the price of Norman Cameron's Loch Torridon oak-smoked salmon.
I take a break from writing this splendid nonsense at 5am to nip to the filling station for my daily doze of fags and newspapers, and come back to my penthouse suite on the 16th floor of my council-owned multi-storey, at Inverdon Court, to find I have locked myself out at ground
level, and shiver for an hour in a tee-shirt and slippers until a nurse heading for her hospital allows me in. I make a mental note to speak to Gordon Brown about a swingeing pay rise for these Florence Nightingales.
Fortified by my seventh cup of coffee of the morning, the Press and Journal tells me that the count in the Gordon seat won't be announced until around 6am on May 4 which could mean SNP leader Alex Salmond may have his party in power without knowing if he will be a putative First Minister.
I feel a pang of sympathy for the mental ordeal facing Alex but then recall that he gave me a totally bum tip at Perth race course some years ago, and my compassion evaporates.
To keep my bosum pal, broadcaster, Robbie Shepherd, and BBC Scotland sweet, I am going to give you a touch of Doric every morning. And for reasons of political correctness, I promise to do something similar for the girning Gaels next week.
Today's Doric translation is: Accountable — 'fa's heid's on the block if a'thing gings erse ower tit.'
Messrs Hay and McKerron, please take note. You are nothing, if not expendable.
Cheers for now.
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Look forward to the US release of both films.
