Peter McKay’s diary: Is Kate and William’s Scottish trip a pro-union initiative?

Having dampened local republican ardour during their recent tour of New Zealand and Australia, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit thinking-about-breaking-away Scotland next week. They’ll tour Glenturret Distillery near Crieff, Perthshire, next Thursday, to ‘bottle their own Glenturret whisky’, if you please. Sounds like a pro-union royal initiative, but what will First Minister Alex Salmond have to say? He claims he’d like the Queen to continue as Scotland’s head of state, although some of his supporters disagree. When HM said in her letter to the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly last week that she prays everyone ‘will work together for the social good of Scotland’, whatever the outcome of the referendum, Salmond’s response was unctuous, praising her ‘typically gracious and considered remarks’. The oily devil. By the way, the Middleton Ancient tartan — predominantly orange and green — is very nice. Will Kate give it an outing?

I was honoured to be invited to an unusual event on Saturday: a dinner dance in the Glenlivet distillery, billed as ‘An Evening For George’.