David Maddox: John Farquhar Munro found

Well the mystery has been solved. One SNP spin doctor suggested to me that there may be a Nationalist search party looking for John Farquhar Munro (pictured) combing his Ross, Skye and Inverness West constituency to try to get him to Holyrood to support them in the referendum vote.
But, it seems they may be looking in the wrong place.
A Lib Dem spin doctor has just e-mailed to say that JFM is in Germany for health reasons, which is a fair excuse to be away and certainly different to the last occasion when he was given leave to bury a cow.
However, they are a hard bunch in the Lib Dems. According to the Lib Dem press office, chief whip Mike Rumbles actually turned down the original request to be away, even though it was health related. In the end it was party leader Tavish Scott who gave permission for his absense.
But the official line from the Lib Dems, given the nature of today's vote and JFM's support for a referendum against party policy, is that his absense is "a happy coincidence."