Previously in this blog I made reference to Blinky Dick – the startled rabbit in the headlights that is Richard Lochhead, Scottish government environment minister. Promoted for reasons not obvious to any neutral observer (with Mike Russell in a junior post, and someone of the capability of Alex Neil on the backbenches) Lochhead’s rise to national obscurity is inexplicable, other than being there to allow Stewart Stevenson to look good.
Tonight his appearance on Newsnight Scotland has been an absolute shambles.
Apparently he is going to amend the European Communities Act to remove Scotland from the common fisheries policy while remaining a member of the EU (mmm, that’s not how it works Dick – and as for your assertion that the views of other member states are irrelevant, well European politics and membership of the Union requires new members to sign up to the rules, and doesn’t allow existing members to opt out of existing treaty obligations).
So, how does Blinky Dick propose to do this?
Well his assertion while being interviewed explains all:
“I’m a Scottish minister I don’t do things that are legal.”
For further enjoyment of Blinky Dick’s incompetence please try the BBC iPlayer and look for Newsnight Scotland.
PS After the debacle of Christina McKelvie and the Scottish Futures Trust, and Blinky Dick being put up for interview this really doesn’t convince that there’s strength in depth in the SNP once you get below the Premiership of Salmond and Swinney.
Might the fact that he was previously Alex Salmond’s constituency office manager explain his otherwise inexplicable rise?
You might very well think that. I couldn’t possibly comment
PS And Stewart Stevenson used to chauffeur wee Eck around – and is part of the Linlithgow mafia…