WHAT do you call three women from Glasgow arguing about money and doctors' appointments?

First Minister's Questions, of course.

Not funny, I know, so it's just as well we had Johann Lamont to crack the jokes and Nicola Sturgeon to throw them right back at her.

We also had Ruth Davidson on the doctors' strike, as the three Glasgow MSPs took centre stage while the first minister was on his way back from modelling Rupert the Bear's trousers in the US.

Ms Lamont began by poking fun not only at Mr Salmond's tartan trews but also at her former leader Jack McConnell for his hilarious pin-striped kilt on a previous US trip.

The jokes kept coming, with jibes aimed at the deputy first minister and the SNP over whether independence would mean keeping the monarch, the pound and UK financial regulation.

If Nicola Sturgeon had written William Wallace's speech, he would have said: "We'll keep King Edward but send him homeward with a seat on the Monetary Policy Committee."

Politicians' attempts at jokes are often spectacularly unfunny and verge on the embarrassing, but Ms Lamont is beginning to comfortably combine humour with pertinent questioning, and has even managed to ruffle the first minister on occasion.

However, Ms Sturgeon made it clear from the start she was not in the mood for comedy. Straight on the attack, she said independence would mean no more illegal Labour wars, no more Trident and no more Tory government.

Taking every opportunity to bracket Labour and the Tories in an anti-independence alliance, a strategy that the SNP hope will prove unpopular with the voters, turning the tables on the old SNP/Tartan Tory tactic of Labour.

This is not the first time the Glasgow MSPs have faced one another, and on previous occasions there has been more light than heat generated in a departure from the usual combative style that characterised exchanges between Alex Salmond and Iain Gray.

This week was different, with Ms Lamont no longer the deputy, having grown into the role of Labour leader and surprising those who questioned her capability, with Ms Sturgeon looking increasingly like the leader in waiting with every appearance.

There were points to be scored and troops to be rallied as the independence referendum campaigns get seriously under way.

As a result, no new questions were raised, and no new answers provided, but Ms Lamont and Ms Sturgeon did have a lively, frank exchange of equally forthright views.

And it looked like they both enjoyed themselves.