The Orkney Vole

Magnus Erlendsson, saint of this parish and very fine artist has put the originals of some of his cartoons for sale in the Christmas show at the Pier Arts Centre in Stromness for the whimsical, if not devilish price, of £666 a piece.

Although our fund could do with the cash, I hope the old saint keeps the money for the originals for a new reliquary for himself. The old bones could do with a new shrine.

Contact the gallery on 01856 850209 directly to get your very fine piece of history.

All the Voles, even Granny  who hates social occasions, trundled along to have a look. Both pieces are hanging in the middle of the main hall where they caused a bit of a stir – not everyone is appreciative of political art as Mrs Vole and little Sweyn. Many people seem to suspect that I may be the real artist but even a vole-of- all-trades like myself could not pretend to be such a fine artist.

Cary Welling, one of the Orkney 4 has also got two very fine images on show. She has long been a distinguished photographer and an activist before this current fuss. Her very fine collection of Greenham images is online. They are fantastic in their own right and as historical (we are old) documents.

Cary was good enough to be holding me up high enough to look at her work when we realised that right beside us was a certain MSP for Orkney deep in conversation with a troglodyte and an owl. Now the MSP behaved impeccably but some of the other mythological creatures did not do quite so well.

It was rather sweet really. The more fanatical Carmichael Defenders are doing their best to snub us to make sure that we know the full weight of their displeasure. As they are mostly very middle class, and used to having their own way they are hardly able to do more to our faces than huff and puff.  Granny Vole had to leave to stop herself laughing.

One trow was rather braver than the rest.  As he is not a fool and not a bad sort,  I assume he was drunk.   He started to shout at me in front of the most excellent mulled wine.

That particular trow thinks, and he has said that he has read every word I have written on this so will read this too, that I am a hypocrite for not attacking Alex Salmond.

In the cool light of a hangover, I have to accept he has a point, not the point he made, but another point which he should have made but did not.

Independence campaigners are not holy, we are not consistent and we have made mistakes. Some dodgy characters will be sitting on the SNP  benches with nasty little secrets that they don’t want the electorate to know about. These will come to light sooner or later.

When they do we will need better mechanisms for challenging sitting MPs.  The Recall  Act  supported by the Lib Dems in the last Parliament  is now in urgent need of coming into force. I hope it is used to challenge dishonest politicians very soon. It is easy to guess that there will be quite a move against Michelle Thomson when that day comes – and that is not a comment on her innocence or guilt.

We also need this kind of  mechanism in the Scottish Parliament very badly. As the Unionist parties argue themselves into oblivion the only mechanism to hold SNP politicians to account will be through voter activism. Sooner or later governing parties get lazy and a bit careless on matters of detail. I hope this doesn’t happen to the SNP but we need to watch them carefully.

Constant Vigilance!