The greatest temptation for the Speaker in the House of Commons is to be a “character”. To project a persona, perhaps to gain a degree of sympathy when there is disruption.

John Bercow, who spent an effervescent spell in the Commons chair, was wont to deploy exaggerated tones when calling the names of selected contributors.

Perhaps his best, as I recall, was when inviting a certain Tory from the north-east of Scotland to address fellow MPs.

“I call David Jooo-git!”, he would declaim, like an 18th-century thespian drooling over a particularly tasty line from Sheridan (who incidentally sat in the Commons as an Anglo-Irish Whig.) David who was that again? It was, of course, David Duguid. Speaker Bercow was using the correct north-east or Doric pronunciation, as expounded by the glorious Aberdonian comedy trio, “Scotland the What?”

The said Duguid was a respected MP and Minister, known to be rooted in his north-east redoubt. Now, his succession has embroiled the Tories in a School for Scandal.

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I chanced to be in the Garden Lobby at Holyrood on Thursday morning. Learning that Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, was to make an election announcement, I presumed that the Tories were, in effect, to impose a candidate in the seat involuntarily vacated by Mr Duguid. That is Aberdeenshire North and Moray East.

Turns out I was right. Mr Ross had looked at the options........

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