THE MSPs who could not be bothered to turn up to Holyrood to celebrate the Scottish Parliament's 10th anniversary provided a variety of excuses - most were unacceptable.

THE MSPs who could not be bothered to turn up to Holyrood to celebrate the Scottish Parliament's 10th anniversary provided a variety of excuses - most were unacceptable.

Those who hold a republican or anti-royal view and claimed they did not go to the event because the Queen was going to be there were not snubbing royalty - they were insulting the Parliament itself.

They were informed of the detail of the celebrations about three months ago and can hardly pretend they did not know about the anniversary and that there would be an important event to mark it.

To ignore the occasion will be taken by many of the people who elected them as a slap in the face. They finished for a two-month recess last Thursday so it is unlikely they were so exhausted they could not have put off their holiday arrangements for a few days.

Fixing appointments to ensure they did not clash with the occasion should not have been beyond their capabilities.

First Minister Alex Salmond should consider if he was right to allow some of his ministers to be absent.

Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham - once know as Republican Rose - was visiting an ironworks at Wilsontown in Lanarkshire. Was that really important ministerial business?

The noises some of the absentees made when contacted made them sound like kids who wilfully gone their own way and were then truculent and embarrassed when challenged.

Leaked documents exposing plans that could lead to the end of warship building on the Clyde within a decade has led to the predictable criticism of the SNP from Westminster.

Glasgow North West MP John Robertson claims the stories were "planted by the SNP to undermine the union and Scottish shipbuilding and to ensure the thousands of job losses independence would bring are seen as inevitable".

Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox said: "We must remember that in an independent Scotland under the SNP all these naval shipbuilding jobs would go."

If these comments sound familiar it is because they are. They were made at length, particularly by the Labour Party, at the last Holyrood elections.

They didn't do much good. Labour's Gordon Jackson was beaten by Nicola Sturgeon to give the SNP its maiden first-past-the-post winner in Glasgow.

Shettleston MSP Frank McAveety is a sports fan, particularly football, although his favourite team from the East End did not give him much to cheer about last season.

Now, just like most other Scots, he is cheering on Andy Murray at Wimbledon and has decided there are not enough facilities to encourage other youngsters to emulate Murray's success.

He is demanding the SNP Government starts to invest more in the sport - a move that will get popular backing at least while Murray stays among the world's best.

However, as a sports minister in the Labour-LibDems' administration, Mr McAveety may not have had to be pressing this case now if he had been more effective in persuading his own colleagues to put up the cash during the eight years they were in power.