CURREN MIGHT BE BETTER, JUST OCCASIONALLY, TO KEEP HER MOUTH SHUT

Alex Salmond is to have talks with David Cameron in Downing Street, London, during a meeting of the administrations of the UK. 

It is expected that he will raise the spectre of the Bedroom Tax, along with other social security issues and youth unemployment. 

Mr Cameron wants to focus the meeting on immigration, the Commonwealth Games and Ryder Cup. But Salmond is determined to raise issues which are pressing for ordinary Scots. Naturally Cameron has no earthly idea what an ordinary Scot is, only having seen the kind that living on shooting estates and went to Eton. Nor of course does he give a stuff about how they live as they consistently refuse to vote for his party and are, therefore of no interest to him whatsoever.

The new secretary of state, who should be fighting Scotland's corner in cabinet, has advised Mr Salmond to arrive in Downing Street with a positive attitude and to listen and learn.  No honestly, he is reported to have said that. Listen and learn from Cameron (the most inept prime minister since... oh yeah, Gordon Brown) and Carmichael (who's been in the job two weeks!).

Of course it would be handy for Mr Cameron if everyone just sat there and listened and learned from the man that has the best qualifications in England that money can buy. But Salmond needs no lessons on statecraft from Cameron, and no advice on how to behave himself in government from Carmichael, and he is there to do what Carmichael and Moore have singularly failed to do: represent Scotland's best interests.

Stairheid Rammy: The Shadow Secretary of State

Not to be left out of course, Labour's shadow secretary for Scotland had to open her mouth. Was it Abraham Lincoln or Mark Twain who said: "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt"? (It may have originated in the Torah, Proverbs 17:28). Anyway whoever said it Stairheid should take heed.

She accuses Mr Salmond of "Grandstanding". 

She says: "What Scots need tomorrow is action to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, not more grandstanding from Alex Salmond and David Cameron.

"Prices are rising faster than wages, energy bills are still going up and the bedroom tax is continuing to hit people across the country.

"This is a rare opportunity to hammer out a plan to get to grips with this cost-of-living crisis.

"Instead of coming to London to tell David Cameron to bin the bedroom tax, Alex Salmond should be laying out a plan to stop it hitting Scots."

[The word "coming" is telling! As a Scot based in Scotland, I'd have said "going".]

Maybe China will send us some food aid?

So, does she not think that bringing up the bedroom tax is the best way of dealing with it? Who does she think is responsible for the cost of living, the energy companies' prices, and the bedroom tax? Not to mention the other criminal behaviour that puts the poorest in our country  in need of food banks and Red Cross parcels?

Why does this stupid woman feel obliged every time she opens her mouth, to carp at Alex Salmond and the SNP? The man is going to do more or less all she is demanding but when he does she feels the need to call it "grandstanding". Would she prefer him to just be a polite man and listen and learn from Cameron and Carmichael? She needs to learn that there is a time for opposition, and there is time to let the first minister do his job. Is she unaware that he will be doing more or less what she is demanding?

Labour really needs to replace her with someone with just a spark of intelligence, because right now, every time the shadow secretary of state opens her mouth she proves beyond doubt that she is a bad joke. We deserve better, Ed.