Willie Rennie – the “secret guilty pleasure” of singer and columnist Michelle McManus

By Paul Walter | Wed 26th July 2017 - 9:50 am

Michelle McManus

Winner of Pop Idol 2003, singer, broadcaster, actress and columnist, Michelle McManus must have brought blushes to the cheeks of Willie Rennie with this passage in her Glasgow Evening Times column:

I mean why can’t The Doctor be a woman? Some of the most powerful positions in the world are held by women now, just look at our own Scottish Parliament. All of the major parties have women at the helm although let’s not forget the Lib Dems and their leader Willie Rennie whose antics at First Minister’s questions have fast become my secret guilty pleasure.

Honestly, you have to watch it when Holyrood reconvenes after the summer. He asks a question and then he usually gets telt and skelpt aff the First Minister and his response? He literally cracks himself up laughing. Brilliant.

Note from an ignorant Sassenach: I thought I was doing well to roughly know the meanings of Scots words “stramash” and “dreich” but I struggled with “telt and skelpt aff”. I think it roughly means “told off and slapped”, but by all means fill your boots with this dictionary of Glasgow slang.

Michelle McManus’ ‘confession’ received this response from Willie:

…and this final reply came from Ms McManus herself:

The thumbnail image advertising this post at the top of our home page is of Willie Rennie, Some rights reserved by Policy Exchange.

* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.

3 Comments

Sue Sutherland 26th Jul '17 - 1:56pm

Love it!
Jane Ann Liston 27th Jul '17 - 10:35am

Now I know what Paddington’s hard stare looked like!
David Pocock 27th Jul '17 - 1:21pm

Haha great story! Give them Stick