KNAVEHEARTS:

Health minister: 'I was wrong to vote for war. To choose party loyalty was immoral' (Douglas Fraser, 16 March 2003, Sunday Herald)

The split in senior Labour ranks over war in Iraq was blown wide open yesterday with an astonishing U-turn by health minister Malcolm Chisholm, who now 'bitterly regrets' his previous support for the party leadership's policy.

The Edinburgh North and Leith MSP chose to announce his change in dramatic form, borrowing a megaphone from anti-war protesters outside his constituency surgery to announce that his decision to back Tony Blair had been 'immoral' when he voted for the party line in the Scottish parliament last week.

Citing his concerns over the death toll for Iraqis and the threat to his personal assistant, Annette Lamont, who is in Iraq as a human shield, he said only the Labour Party can now exert sufficient pressure on Tony Blair to step back from British involvement in war, and that those against conflict should focus their attentions for the next two or three final days when that could be possible. Only two other MSPs shifting sides would have won a motion in the parliament last Thursday warning the Prime Minister that the case for war has not been made.

What the heck happened to the once great Scots? Somewhere William Wallace and Robert the Bruce are crying tears of shame.

MORE SCOTS HOPELESSNESS:
Beauty With Balls: Edd McCracken joins the male grooming revolution by waxing his shoulders, but finds that there is no gain without pain (Sunday Herald, 16 March 2003)

I HAVE hairy shoulders. Not just wisps of hair but great big wads of fur that sit on my shoulders like a matted parrot. They appeared a few years ago and quickly made their nest. Abject disgust soon gave way to acceptance of my hairy lot and, finally, to a weird sense of affection. And now they are about to be ripped from my body. It's like losing a friend. Still, my 'waxer' today at Edinburgh's One Spa is a beautiful Russian woman so, if they have to go, I suppose this is as good a way as any.

Perhaps that goes some way to explaining why a growing number of Scottish men are submitting themselves to such masochistic behaviour. Narcissus was a man, after all.

'There has been a huge shift now between guys and girls,' says Brian Hunter, general manager of One Spa, located behind Edinburgh's Sheraton Grand Hotel. 'A lot more men are getting in touch with their feminine side. It's not such a big barrier anymore.'

Recent figures show that more and more men are spending vast amounts of time and money on their appearance.

Bad enough they wear skirts.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 16, 2003 7:20 AM