 | 'ALL credit to The Herald, which sponsored the Politician of the Year award and which obtained the damning video evidence leading to Lord WatsonÕs arrest.' Alan Taylor in the Sunday Herald, 4 th September 2005. |  |
| 'ALL credit to The Herald, which sponsored the Politician of the Year award and which obtained the damning video evidence leading to Lord WatsonÕs arrest.' Alan Taylor in the Sunday Herald, 4 th September 2005. | |
ONLY last week a political pundit opined in the lift that what Holyrood needed to help it come of age was a good old-fashioned scandal. In which case, heartfelt thanks are due to Lord Watson of Tannadice, the Guy Fawkes of the peedie parliament, who has admitted setting fire to a pair of curtains at the Politician of the Year awards at Prestonfield House near Edinburgh.
Perhaps miffed that he won nowt Š the most prestigious award went to Margaret Curran, an auld enemy Š his lordship called for flagons of vino before igniting the curtains, which is very rock'n'roll. Although internationally recognised as an expert on interior design, I cannot confirm whether said curtains deserved to be treated so brutally but, given the rococo taste of 'flamboyant' James Thomson, owner of Prestonfield, it is surely not beyond possibility.
There has been much speculation as to why Lord Watson went bonkers. True, there was a surfeit of sodden hacks and superfluous politicians on the premises at the time but nobody has seriously suggested that he wanted to do away with them all. His lawyer, Paul Burns, has said that the affair cannot 'simply be explained in terms of alcohol', adding 'there are sadnesses and disappointments in Mr WatsonÕs private life that I suspect go some long way to explaining the sad chain of events that have brought us here'.
Some commentators have suggested that this may be an oblique reference to the fluctuating fortunes of Dundee United, of whom Lord Watson is historian. This seems to me far-fetched. As a Hearts sympathiser, one grows accustomed, if not inured, to disappointment but one cannot recall ever setting fire to curtains, however hideous. Then again, though, neither does Lord Watson.
Power trip or wannabe hero?
ALL credit to The Herald, which sponsored the Politician of the Year award and which obtained the damning video evidence leading to Lord WatsonÕs arrest. In particular one would like to pay homage to the anonymous member of The HeraldÕs staff who 'chastised' his lordship for his rudeness to hotel staff when they refused him alcohol after the bar closed.
Hacks, of course, would never do such a thing, though one fondly recalls the former Hootsmon editor who, when similarly refused drink at the Balmoral, booked a room for the night, thus enabling him or her Š no names, no pack drill Š to order the most expensive G&T in the hotelÕs history.
In order to explain why Lord Watson did what he did, The Herald engaged the services of one Cynthia McVey, a psychology lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University.
'Some,' flannelled Ms McVey, 'have been found to derive a sense of power from watching the burning of a building they have set alight. Others fantasise about acquiring hero status by raising the alarm.' Into which camp Lord Watson fell, she did not say. Alas.
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