We chat like this with my colleague Alex, of course hybridly, he is in Edinburgh and I am in London, and we use the benefits of the internet because the phones have also become more expensive. As much as I am more English, so is that counter... no, more ticklish, more Scottish, I don't know, maybe he is wearing a kilt at home. Although that with the kilt is unlikely to me, some time ago he complained that even after all this time he could not get used to the cold Scottish winter.

Alex (with whom we worked together at the BBC, he in the Serbian service, I in the Macedonian one) is now a professor at a university in Edinburgh and after so many years in the north, he says - me with two sweaters on me and a ski jacket, and students come to me wearing t-shirts. It won't be until years, I tell him, as I watch my neighbor John cross the street with one of three T-shirts (I taught him his wardrobe), and I, like a Yeti, can't keep my hands off the layers of winter clothes on me - hat, a scarf, gloves and the ones for the ears, because my hat is actually a hat, so that my hairstyle doesn't get completely flattened...

And, the day before yesterday Alex was excited, he even posted a tweet: Scotland got a new prime minister (ok, first minister, but prime minister after all) a Muslim. Well, well, well, I tell him, here in London we have a Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, and he is already serving his second term. And we have a Hindu Prime Minister. Well, yes, but Hamza Yousaif is the first Muslim to head a Western country, that's a big deal, says Alex, which says a lot about progress in the fight against racism. And here, I admit, there is no comparison.

Hot seat

The new Scottish first minister inherits a party deeply divided following the departure of the charismatic Nicola Sturgeon, who at one time had "superstar" status but who nevertheless failed to achieve the Scottish National Party's main goal of independence from the rest of the UK when in 2014, he did not win the referendum. Let's not forget, the Scots overwhelmingly did not vote for Brexit, but they still failed to "exit" the union with England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Buoyed by the victory, Hamza Yousaif said that he is not giving up on the ultimate goal - an independence referendum, despite the fact that the government in Westminster has persistently refused to allow Scotland to do so in recent years, and it seems that at the moment, with all the economic problems , and in Scotland the majority thinks that "now is not quite the time".

Yusaif, by the way, is Sturgeon's "child" and was the Minister of Health in her government. When she offered him the ministerial position, his father, a Pakistani who came to Scotland in the sixties, rejoiced (hey, son of a minister), but his mother, a Muslim from Kenya, asked him - why did you do Nicola so wrong, because the health during the covid was a "hot seat". However, many see in Yousaif a continuation of the previous prime minister's policies, which could be a double-edged sword. Especially since he didn't get a landslide majority, the party's membership is dwindling, and the problems… well, you know.

Driven by donkeys

A group known as "Led by Donkeys" (yes, yes, that's the name - "Led by Donkeys") decided to check the integrity of some of the members of the British Parliament. This is, by the way, a British political campaign group, founded in December 2018 as an anti-Brexit group, which has also criticized other actions of the Conservative government. Since its inception, the four founders have been challenging and publicizing cases of what they call "thermonuclear hypocrisy" and have targeted major pro-Brexit politicians.

And so, in the most recent case, a representative of the group called twenty MPs and told them that she represented a South Korean company that wanted to start a business in Great Britain. For that "start-up" they need consultants that she is willing to pay, mainly as much as their "tariff" or, in other words, as much as they ask. The most zealous proved to be, who else but them – the Tory MPs. Former Health Minister Matt Hancock (the one who resigned for 'making eye contact' with a female adviser in a ministry corridor amid the covid-19 pandemic lockdown), former Chancellor Quasi Kwarteng (the one who during Liz Truss's brief premiership destroyed the economy), the "capitalist" Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers, MPs who are not in the government but who create and fire from behind, the former defense secretary, and that Sir, Gavin Williamson and the former minister Stephen Hammond.

Last Monday, "Driven by Donkeys" released audio and video recordings on YouTube of these MPs haggling over the tariffs. Mat Hancock and Quasi Kwarteng asked for £10.000 a day to advise on various legal matters, and Sir Graham Brady was more practical and stated that his terms were £6.000 a day, but he would also accept a £60.000 annual appanage to be available.

It was as if there were none

It was interesting that none of them asked for details of exactly what they should do. Only Quasi boasted that he was able to secure a meeting with former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. This, of course, caused violent reactions in the public, but also in political circles. One of the home ministers, Chris Phillips, joked that he wouldn't pay a penny to either Hancock or Kwarteng and that these two had made an undignified spectacle of themselves.

Earlier there were scandals with parliamentarians lobbying for commercial firms and this caused big problems and scandals. Once one even resigned, that is, he was forced to resign with a heavy heart. And this cannot be solved in any way. Because, for the time being, the members of the parliament can have other work, if it does not take too much time and if it is in accordance with the party rules. And the rules are loose, loose, loose.

It is one thing, they say, to be an MP who is also a nurse once a week, which the Conservatives pointed out as a parliamentarian with an extra job, and another to be a former minister or member of parliament with political involvement on £10.000 a day, who will even introduce you to BoJo. Or a former defense minister advising a weapons manufacturer. Now there are proposals to regulate this. Or to adopt a rule that for at least three years after the termination of the mandate, deputies cannot consult, lobby or accept other political engagements. But... Ministers must not have a second job, but MPs can, despite the fact that they have a job, take care of us, the citizens, and not of some white-world (well, fictional, but still) South Korean companies, that is, of their own pockets, because they know that what is not forbidden is permitted. But there was no such method? People got to know each other. And then the rating drops. Well, it falls.

(The author is a journalist)