Why Donald Cameron should be in the Lords

Finally, Rishi Sunak has put a half-decent Cameron in the House of Lords. In raising Donald Cameron to the peerage and appointing him parliamentary under-secretary of state for Scotland, the Prime Minister has poached one of the sharpest minds in the Scottish Parliament. Cameron has been an MSP for Highlands and Islands for the past eight years and distinguished himself with forensic speeches dissecting SNP government legislation, drawing on his experience as an advocate (a Scottish barrister). Even opponents struggle for a bad word to say about him, an uncommon state of affairs in the bitter and tribal world of Scottish politics.

Cameron’s style is patrician and so are his politics. He is, as far as I can tell, the only member of the government to head up his own Scottish clan. Not one of those deals where you pay twenty quid and get a certificate and half an inch of mulch somewhere north of Strathspey.