You would be forgiven for thinking the antics inside of Historic Environment Scotland were tales from a new Armando Iannucci series, writes Marissa MacWhirter.

You would be forgiven for thinking that the torrent of headlines referring to Historic Environment Scotland (HES) over the past few weeks were in reference to a new TV series from Armando Iannucci.

I picture the scene as if it were written by The Thick of It creator. The setting, a booze fuelled Christmas lunch at Edinburgh Castle, where invited guests included the actor Martin Compston and Penny Lancaster, wife of Rod Stewart.

An overserved senior member of the quango sat on the knee of one of the invited guests. They then stood up and began to “twerk”. For the uninitiated, twerking is a style of dance that typically involves squatting low to the ground and, keeping your upper body as still as possible, rhythmically thrusting the hips and buttocks to create a bouncing motion. Understandably, this drunken interpretation of the Afro-Caribbean dance tradition made Mr Compston feel “uncomfortable”.

The blitzed HES member allegedly went on to pose for a photograph with Ms Lancaster and made reference to them being “two dumb blondes”. Ms Lancaster, now 54, has been open about being diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of 46, including sharing that when she was........

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