Drumlanrig

SILENT TYPE

DANNY Alexander isn't Cicero, that much we know. His first public utterances as the Scottish Secretary last week have not got him marked down as a great orator. When asked by David Cameron if he wanted to say something to the Scottish public, his reply was: "I'm not sure there's much for me to add." Seeing as the Lib Dems had previously suggested in opposition that the post of Scottish Secretary might be abolished, this perhaps wasn't the best idea.

Alexander, above, has struck a monk-ish approach to politics ever since taking over the job. Drumlanrig hears he also turned down interviews with both BBC and STV. At least it strikes a different tone from his predecessor Jim 'Where's-the-Camera?" Murphy.

DRIVEN MAN

VINCE Cable hasn't quite got used to ministerial life. Leaving 10 Downing Street on Thursday as the new Business Secretary, he turned left and began to walk up the road to Whitehall.

He hadn't noticed the large limo that was waiting outside – formerly occupied by Lord Mandelson – waiting to take him round the block. Shrugging his shoulders, Cable turned round and jumped in.

JOINED-UP THINKING

NOT surprisingly, the new Conservative/Lib Dem alliance has had a very mixed reaction in Scotland. In Edinburgh, the Tory campaign leader David McLetchie, right, got into the spirit of it by sporting a special tie with Tory blue stars on a Lib Dem yellow background when David Cameron came to Holyrood last week.

The coalition did not go down quite so well in Gordon Brown's native Kirkcaldy.

Fifers have been trying to come up with snappy new name for Cameron's partnership with Nick Clegg. Would it be the ConDems? The ToryLibs? The ConLibs? Eventually the good citizens of Kirkcaldy settled on the charming epithet – the Tolies.

FAG-END OF THE DEAL

THE ascent of two public school "toffs" to the top of the UK government has led to much joshing about Clegg's appointment as Cameron's "fag".

Among young Clegg's duties will be polishing Dave's shoes and making his toast (no burnt bits).

One imaginative blog suggested that Danny Alexander had been "bog-washed" by big boys in the Tories and that Chris Huhne had to visit matron after being given a wedgie.

As for Clegg, when asked whether he had sold out to the Prime Minister, he is said to have replied: "I have made his bed, and I will lie in it."