| Ingenue First Minister Henry
McLeish made further changes to his Scottish Executive team late last week, with
leadership rival Jack McConnell being given further ministerial responsibility. McConnell,
who took over the education brief from Sam Galbraith in the last reshuffle, will now also
be personally responsible for visiting and climbing high structures with ill-fitting or
missing guard rails. In making him Minister for High, Scary Places, McLeish insisted that
McConnell was not being unduly picked on.
The First Minister told the JT: "As someone who said in his leadership bid
that he was willing to face the challenge of leading Scotland, I'm happy to give Jack his
chance of leading from the front in ensuring that all vertiginous structures are
thoroughly checked on by a minister on the ground, or, in this case a hundred and fifty
feet up in the air, screaming for his Mummy, two-faced bastard that he is." |
Mr McLeish denied press reports
that his re-shuffle was worthy of Machiavelli, "I think that the boy's done good with
a young squad at Turin, but I'm cleverer…" Elsewhere, Minister
for Everything, Wendy Alexander, expressed some surprise at being handed a briefcase by Mr
McLeish, containing, he told her, a ticking commemorative clock to thank her for all her
good work. "I'm puzzled" Wendy told the JT, "I wanted to open the case
there and then but Henry insisted that I only look inside when I was on my own or 'safely
clear of my office' as he put it."
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