A tale of two parliaments

The Irish backstop is still the hot topic of Brexit debate and Lesley examines the "Let's blame Ireland" narrative which the likes of John Humphrys and Andrew Marr are punting on the BBC. I spent most of Tuesday glued to BBC Parliament trying to follow the series of amendments to the Brexit vote on Theresa May's latest deal. I reflect not only the fate of Ian Blackford's amendment but the disgraceful behaviour of Tory and DUP MPs towards him. We consider, again, the nature of adversarial party politics in the UK and speculate on what, if any, difference a PR system of elections would make. This leads us, neatly, into the Scottish budget, the compromises reached between the SNP and the Scottish Greens to secure agreement in contrast to the refusal of the other three parties to engage with Derek McKay. Lesley hosted Nordic Horizons in Edinburgh earlier this week where the hammer of Fox News, Danish MP Dan Joergensen, was the star turn. As well as all this we pay tribute to Jeremy Hardy, praise Jackson Carlaw and Willie Rennie, and Lesley reckons I might be a hipster.