Whodunnit?

The Gould Report into the mess in the election in May was published today - the greatest political whodunnit since we asked who knifed Ming Campbell.

Normally you would expect it to turn out to be a big boy who did it and ran away, but this time it was two wee boys who did it and forgot to run away.

Douglas Alexander (wee Wendy's brother and erstwhile Secretary of State for Scotland) gets it in the neck along with Jack McConnell for focussing on 'partisan political interests' instead of looking at what was in the best interests of the people of Scotland. Gould also said

What is characteristic of 2007 was a notable level of party self interest evident in Ministerial decision-making (especially in relation to the timing and method of counts and the design of ballot papers). The timing and impact of policy decisions taken by Ministers also seem to be a critical factor.

Seems fairly clear - Labour tried to carve up the election for its own ends and instead found its own end - as it were...

As a post-script to an earlier post, I've just found out that Jeremy Purvis, Lib Dem MSP, has said that the SNP Government's decision to scrap the Graduate Endowment tuition fee is a "missed opportunity". I know the tuition fee was introduced by a Lib Dem Minister (Jim Wallace), but I fail to see how Jeremy can call its abolition a missed opportunity.

Perhaps Jeremy should just go back to scaring pensioners?