It’s Burns night on Tuesday and after two years of pandemic politics, what better time to celebrate the Union? Yesterday evening Tory unionists piled into the opulent splendour of the the Cavalry and Guards Club for the London branch of the Scottish Conservatives’ annual celebration of the national poet. Steerpike’s spies were in attendance to enjoy the traditional bagpipes and whisky, with Dame Eleanor Laing delivering a magisterial toast to the haggis in her wonderful Paisley accent — a job for which her stints in the Speaker’s chair have certainly proved good training.
Scottish leader Douglas Ross was the star turn, having found himself caught between a Holyrood/Westminster tug-of-war in recent days after calling for Boris Johnson to go. Veiled digs, leadership gags and cricketing metaphors were in short supply last night as Ross’s ‘Immortal Memory’ passed off without incident – having survived the embarrassment of Sir Malcolm Rifkind inadvertently rechristening him ‘Donald Ross.’
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