David Maddox: The adventures of War Monkey

Mike Russell headed to Inverkeithing Primary School for his first media photo-op as the Scottish education secretary (designate) and was met there by a decent sized crowd of political press hacks.
He did the tour and then came in for a posed chat with a selection of distinctly nervous looking school children from various classes.
As he sat down with them, he breezily asked one: "What are you reading?" And then slightly choked as he read the title: "Oh, it's War Monkey."
Perhaps symbolic of what some believe is his new role given that he has to go into battle for the organ grinder (Alex Salmond) with Scotland's councils over education in the coming days.
But, what followed was not a good sign for what is to come, especially if he is looking for good press on a difficult issue for the Scottish Government.
Instead of facing questions from the assembled journalists of the written media, who had been waiting for an hour, Mr Russell decided that it was a greater priority to do his bit for government propaganda.
So he prioritised answering some banal questions for the Scottish Government website rather than searching ones from the fourth estate, cutting down the time available to question him on policy and the difficult issues ahead.
It was not clear who made this decision. Colin McAllister, the party spin doctor for education on the government pay role, should take much of the responsibility for not taking a grip on the situation and apparently leaving the decision to a junior press officer. Mr Russell, as an ex-media man himself, should have known better too.
But whoever is to blame, to put the government website first will do nothing to improve the SNP's image.