David Maddox: Homecomer

Just got back from the Algarve in Portugal on a pleasantly cheap deal for a week where the delights included this nice beach near Lagos. But it has niggled my conscience a little that I was probably not doing my bit for Homecoming Year and the push to support Scottish tourism.
And interestingly, the issue of Homecoming Year has made MSPs very nervous about talking about their holiday destinations and few have let on whether they plan to go abroad for fear of being pilloried for not doing their bit.
When a request went round from one newspaper asking parties for their MSPs choice of holiday, at least one party's press office put round a note telling their MSPs not to tell us anything.
But some details have leaked out.
It seems that First Minister Alex Salmond is not actually planning on taking a break, although I am assured he intends to visit some places at his leisure in the North of Scotland.
His chief spin doctor Kevin Pringle had a very nice break on the Greek island of Zakynthos near Keffalonia of Captain Corelli's Mandolin fame, relaxing in a converted farm house reading and enjoying the spectacular coast. By coincidence the next door neighbour who fixed his light, a permanent resident, is from Inverness, but is also a regular homecomer.
Green MSP Robin Harper apparently spent a wonderful time in the Alps, enjoying a spectacular lightning show from a storm one night.
SNP MSP Christine Grahame plans, like me, to go to Portugal. Meanwhile I ran into the husband and wife Labour MSP team of Richard and Claire Baker returning from the Dordogne at Edinburgh airport.
Admittedly, the whole issue is a typical silly season one and MSPs should be allowed to relax in the summer at a place of their choice. In that sense they are no different to the rest of us.
And as one MSP put it to me: "You cannot be a Homecomer unless you've gone away in the first place."

David Maddox: Fielding at silly point

There are two things you can count on in the summer months - cricket and the newspapers' silly season.

And, as seems to happen most years when there is an Ashes series, the SNP have managed to combine the two.

This time Sandra White (pictured top left), a Glasgow list MSP, has put down a motion calling on cricket to be removed from terrestrial television north of the Border because there is little interest for it here. Strange she should make the complaint considering that it only appears on news bulletins as Sky holds the rights to the game.

But even a cursory look at the evidence shows that she is wrong about cricket not being widely followed in Scotland.

There are 160 clubs registered with Cricket Scotland (including the Grange in Edinburgh, pictured right). Around 28,000 Scots play the sport, not least the Scotsman's own team, and thousands more support it. Some argue it is more played and better supported even than rugby and you never hear the Nationalists wanting to ban that sport from the television.

Scotland has also had some success competing against first class county teams in one day competitions and on the international stage. They have gained full international status in the one day game and got to the semi-finals of the 2005 ICC Trophy.

There have also been some notable Scottish players. Two of the current Scottish team play for first class counties Navdeep Poonia for Warwickshire and Kyle Coetzer for Durham.

My favourite is arguably England's greatest captain Douglas Jardine (pictured left), inventor of the infamous Bodyline bowling attack to tackle Don Bradman in the 1932/33 Ashes series. His name still still brings up the bristles on the Antipodean back.

Then there was the famous win in 2007 of Freuchie in the National Village Cricket Championships at Lords.

The sport has a long history here in Scotland too with the oldest club Kelso dating back to 1820.

Ms White of course is following in the footsteps of her fellow list SNP MSP Christine Grahame, who complained about the Ashes being on TV too much in 2005. Notably, she is yet to win a constituency contest in the Borders where cricket is most popular in Scotland, despite trying in a marginal seat three times which was one of the SNP's top targets in 2007.

It could be argued that the Nationalist dislike for the summer game comes from its historical sentiment over its origins in Scotland. It was first played by English soldiers stationed in Scotland in 1785 after they had put down the Jacobite rebellion along with Scottish Hanoverian soldiers at Culloden.

But one has to ask, as some political parties already have, whether having a go at cricket is a convenient way of having a go at the English without actually saying so as it is clear they consider the game to be an English one. It is certainly an easy way of trying to stir up anger over English interests being put over Scottish ones in television coverage.

David Maddox: talking of eccentric MSPs....

I feel that my previous blog on Chris Harvie where I decried a lack of colourful characters in Holyrood unfairly failed to mention the Nationalist MSP Christine Grahame.
If there is one MSP who can be relied on to come up with something completely from left field it is Ms Grahame. We all remember her drive to reclaim Berwick for Scotland and she has not given up yet on trying to repatriate the bones of Scotland's exiled monarch Mary Queen of Scots.
Her Christmas gift for hacks is a Christine Grahame classic - a motion exalting the greatness of the Australian rock band AC/DC.
Some may say that MSPs should concentrate on more important and indeed genuinely Scottish issues, but at least nobody could accuse Ms Grahame of being boring.
Here is a full copy of her motion:

AC/DC, We Salute you. That this parliament recognises the significant musical contribution of the rock band AC/DC, whose founding members Angus and Malcolm Young moved from Scotland to Australia, joined with Bon Scott, another Scottish imigri to create what has become a musical legend with the band selling an estimated 150 million albums worldwide and establishing themselves as the best selling rock band of all time; notes that the popularity of AC/DC continues to grow and welcomes their forthcoming performance at Scotland's National Football Stadium on June 30th; and finally acknowledges the musical inspiration the band has provided to thousands of Scottish musicians who have themselves gone on to great international success.