Yesterday was the search for perfect answers in an imperfect world. And real heavyweight stuff. I logged in to the COVID-19 Ctte, of which I am a member, at 0830 and logged off from Parliament broadcasting at 1730. We had two five minute tea breaks and twenty-five minutes for lunch. So about eight and a half hours in front of the cameras. It's much worse broadcasting from your own home studio than being in Parliament. Why? In Committee rooms, you can see where the cameras are pointing and you can see which is "active" by looking at the monitors. So if the irresistible need to scratch your nose arrises there, you can pick your moment, confident that it ain't going to be broadcast. At Westminster, it's been some time since they started televising proceedings. One of those who vociferously resisted the move was Tam Dalyell. His reservations were wholly justified when he was seen picking his nose. Or so I have been told. Never saw it myself. Now given that the...

Yesterday was a hard day wrestling words. Or should that be wrangling? No; definitely wrestling. Because wrangling is defined as "engagement in a long, complicated dispute or argument." And that's scheduled for later today when I start my participation in the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Bill Stage 2 debates and the 55 amendments we have to dispose of between 0900 and 1400. The wrestling yesterday was trying to force words into a sensible structure for deploying in an argument. It took some time, five online meetings to be precise and a few off-the-field time-outs for tea, coffee and a couple of consultations with a dictionary. There's a rule of thumb about speechifying. Preparation takes ten times as long as delivery. And that's only about constructing the words into the right order for a decent wrangle. For some subjects, the acquisition of the background knowledge to enable you to find the right words is a lifetime's effort. I expect that I shall ...

I generally start my week by looking at my diary. Making sure I have the assets I require for my meetings. Looking backwards over four weeks, I discover to my surprise that I have attended 12 Committee meetings and three sessions of Parliament. The new normal is that Parliament is here in my study in Banffshire. And as I look to my right, I see the neatly ordered piles of paper waiting. On the floor. The main action this week will be progressing the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Bill. We start at 0900 on Tuesday and are currently scheduled to spend four and a half hours dealing with the 55 amendments submitted for consideration in twenty-two separate debates. That's a nominal twelve minutes per debate. We'll see. I spent much of yesterday getting my mind around the proposals. The first read-through is always a bit alarming as some quite major proposals are unclear in their intent. On the second read-through, the alarm diminishes for most. But for some, it rises shar...