Tom Peterkin on FMQs

With the sun beaming down on Holyrood there would normally be a pleasant end of term feeling emanating through the corridors of devolved power. Today is the last day of business before MSPs have their two week Easter holiday - sorry recess.
The horrendous events in the North Sea, however, have cast a long shadow over that. At First Minister's Questions the main party leaders united in expressions of sympathy to the bereaved. Alex Salmond gave a strong hint that there is to be a public inquiry into the accident and revealed that most of the victims were from the North East of Scotland.
While Tavish Scott, who as the member for the Shetlands has more experience of helicopters than most MSPs, spoke of the frightening flights over mountainous seas into gale force winds that off-shore workers brave as a matter of routine.
The disaster was quite rightly at the forefront of MSPs' minds, which is more than can be said for some London-based news organisations, who relegated the loss of 16 lives down the news agenda way behind the G20 summit.