Before submerging...

This was about my only glimpse of daylight today - walking to St Andrews House prior to Cabinet. An hour later I was in the Parliament preparing to appear before the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee . I had a full afternoon in the Chamber and then , almost immediately, went into the full Stage 2 proceedings in the Finance & Constitution Committee which lasted till 10.35 - the latest any part of the Scottish Parliament has ever sat.

None the less we didn’t finish the work and will meet again at 8.00 tomorrow morning.

St Andrews House was once a place I demonstrated outside but for most of the last 10 years I have had an office here , or rather a succession of different offices as I have held different Ministerial posts. Amazing the things you don’t expect in life !

On that note my extra picture is , unusually, of me and not by me. It is a great shot of this afternoon’s debate when John Swinney and I were trying to make some sense of the claims of Tory Adam Tompkins regarding the UK approach to our difficulties with Clasue 11 of their Bill. I don’t think either John or would expected to be still working as a poltiical front bench double act more than 30 years after we first met as senior national office bearers in the SNP .