I’D like to apologise to readers, as well as the dozens of Scottish Liberal Democrat voters across the country, for shamefully overlooking Willie Rennie in my round up of FMQs in recent weeks.
It’s not because I don’t care about him. He’s definitely in my top five favourites of the LibDem lads at Holyrood. It’s just sometimes, on occasion, I forget he’s there. Mea culpa.
So, before FMQs started this week, I decided my write-up today be all about Willie. A Willie-fest, if you will. A bit like that footage that recently emerged of the Tory MP in his local pub.
Willie Rennie asked the First Minister about the breaking news that Court of Appeal judges had ruled against the expansion of Heathrow, all but killing the UK Government plans for a third runway.
He said that the Scottish Government had previously supported the planned expansion and asked Nicola Sturgeon if she was “glad” that the courts had stopped it.
READ MORE: Watch Nicola Sturgeon take down Willie Rennie over Heathrow claims
In response, the First Minister said: ‘’The decision on whether or not there is a third runway at Heathrow is not one for me or my government. The last time this came to a vote in the House of Commons, SNP MPs did not vote in favour of it.”
She went on to say that she wanted to see all government policies – in both the UK and Scotland “align with our climate change ambition”.
"I’m afraid all that waffle won’t tackle climate change,” replied Willie Rennie.
My LibDem sources tell me that Willie Rennie recently issued a memo urging party members to ditch waffles as a food stuff entirely, out of concern for the polar ice caps.
He continued this line of questioning, angry with the First Minister because the UK Government had "failed to carry out an environmental assessment on its Paris climate change commitments" in relation to Heathrow expansion.
He went on: "The Scottish Government made EXACTLY THE SAME MISTAKE when they signed the memorandum of understanding on Heathrow, but the First Minister told us not to worry, because the Tories were taking care of the environmental side of things. That looks pretty stupid today."
READ MORE: Here's the question Willie Rennie must answer about Lib Dem paedophile cover up
Nicola Sturgeon said again that Heathrow expansion was "not within our power or areas of responsibility" and peppered her reply with the phrase "I hope Willie Rennie would understand…" and "I hope this is clear to Willie Rennie…" which demonstrated that, despite the pressures of leadership, Nicola Sturgeon is still a woman of great optimism.
One of my favourite things about Willie Rennie is that his contribution to the chamber never ends with his final question. Once again, he didn’t disappoint. As he resumed his seat, he paused briefly and purposefully and regular viewers knew a MOMENT was incoming.
Theatrically, he raised arms to the heavens and brutally – without mercy – he ripped up a wee piece of paper.
Was this to signify that Nicola Sturgeon was RIPPING UP her commitment to tackling climate change? Or ripping up the rule book? Or maybe that she was ripping his heart in two? On this, as so many other things when it comes to Willie Rennie, nobody can really know for sure what his point was.
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