You know about watching a politician’s lips. How about watching his fingers? Scottish domination of British politics is a tradition (just look at the nine Prime Ministers who’ve served under Queen Elizabeth II: with MacMillan, Douglas-Home, Blair, Gordon Brown and now David Cameron), its only to be expected that the current Speaker of the House of Commons would be a Scot. Michael Martin, representing Glasgow North-East, is known to drift off during long debates. But what is he really doing? The answer has just come out. He’s secretly playing his pipes! He confessed during a recent interview that he’s practicing his fingering! “People ask me, isn’t it the case that the debates are boring? How do you survive? I answer that if I have a pen and my fingers are moving, that’s my way of switching off from what’s being said.”