IF you are the kind of person who enjoys watching old episodes of TV programmes you know almost word-for-word, then you were in for a real treat with this week’s FMQs.
Douglas Ross asked again about the ongoing Michael Matheson data charge saga.
And once again, Matheson (below) was in attendance on the front bench for his weekly roasting session.
Fair play to him for that. Being lectured about standards in public life by a representative of the Conservative Party much be a difficult thing to sit through.
There haven’t been many new developments in the story since last week’s FMQs.
The only thing that has changed is the intensity with which Ross disbelieves Matheson’s version of events.
Ross has moved way past scepticism at this point. He’ll soon start jeering "did ye, aye?" at the Health Secretary.
On Thursday, he suggested that Matheson was lying about not watching the football match (the inference being that he’s passed the buck onto his teenage sons - ouch) and that he was lying about his stated timeline for when he discovered the bill wasn’t a legitimate expense.
Shona Robison was standing in for the First Minister this week and so had the unenviable task of trying to find something new to say in defence of the Health Secretary.
Ross began with a piece of niche political trivia.
"Let’s remember - he’s the MSP that once bragged about watching six football matches in a single weekend. But now, he wants us to believe that when he was on holiday, he never watched the games, he never knew the football was on, he never spoke to anyone about it. And when a giant bill came in he was completely clueless about it.’’
He then asked the Deputy First Minister: "Does she seriously expect the public to believe a word of this story?"
Robison tried her best but it wasn’t great to be honest.
Thankfully, there was another stand-in who did an excellent job of rescuing us from the monotony.
Deputy presiding officer Annabelle Ewing was chairing the proceedings and she did so in a refreshingly no-nonsense way.
She is one of the most impatient MSPs that gets to sit in the big chair and I genuinely mean that as a compliment.
Every time I had just about reached my limit with an over-long question or answer, the deputy presiding officer swooped in to cut them off mid-sentence. Not in a gentle, if-you’d-be-so-kind, sort of way.
But with a proper, exasperated, for-the-love-of-God-stop-talking.
This group of MSPs and, in particular, this gaggle of party leaders, really do need a firm hand.
They’ve been over-indulged for too long and it’s us dweebs that watch FMQs every week that suffer the most.
Ewing recognises that gentle parenting isn’t an effective measure of control for a group of politicians.
You’ve got to get stuck in, turn off their mics, bang the wee hammer and ruin the soundbite that they wanted to clip for social media.
Long may she reign.
