Donald Dewar was commendably on message when it came to last week’s target-setting announcements. The Scottish Office, the Secretary of State said, was “at the cutting edge of work in this field as I understand it - which is another way of saying that I struggled a bit when it came to the methodology”.
Dewar walks tall, of course, which is not the most memorable characteristic of Gerry Wilson, head of the Scottish Office Education and Industry Department, or “the poor man’s Sir Humphrey”, as he likes to dub himself.
Wilson found the lectern at last week’s Scottish Office launch of the targets suited him perfectly which is more than lanky Dewar did. The Secretary of State could not help referring to “this small but perfectly formed lectern which I must say I thought had been designed for Gerry Wilson”.
