Diary – 7 May 2015

I am writing a play about Dr Johnson and his Dictionary. It will be performed in Scotland later this year. Five out of the great man’s six helpers were Scots (the only Englishman, V.J. Peyton, was considered a fool and a drunkard) and it’s timely to think of all those Scotsmen working away to consolidate the English language while their descendants try to define the general election. As a fully functioning Willie (‘Work in London, Live in Edinburgh’), I am startled by the zeal with which the SNP plans to take its revenge on Westminster after a decisive ‘no’ vote in the referendum. The Scottish rugby team is often accused of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory (witness the last-minute penalty try in the Italy game at Murrayfield), now the plan is very much ‘arsy-versy’ — a phrase Johnson omitted on the grounds of vulgarity. When a lady praised him for the absence of foul language, he replied: ‘Madam, I hope I have not daubed my fingers.