MSPs returned to work at Holyrood on Tuesday after a two-month break but so the poor dears didn't have to clock in too early, the first committee meetings were not scheduled until the afternoon. Children going to primary school for the first time had an earlier start.

Bizarrely, however, Labour leader Iain Gray said in Parliament yesterday "some of us feel we have never been away".

Makes your heart bleed, doesn't it? MSPs finished up at the end of June, were off for more than nine weeks, came back to work on Tuesday and only have to wait five weeks before they have another fortnight off.

They were, of course, asked to come in for an hour last week for Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill's statement on the release of the Lockerbie bomber and around two-thirds of them even turned up for the Queen's visit to the Parliament to mark its 10th anniversary - hardly an onerous schedule.

Of course, some MSPs will say they have been toiling hard in their constituencies but most working people - those lucky enough not to have been paid off because of the recession - will have had a couple of weeks' holiday and, unlike highly-paid MSPs, many of them will have spent it at home and really will "never have been away".

When MSPs did get down to work properly on Wednesday, Holyrood had its first opportunity to debate the release of the bomber.

To help them, the Scottish Government published 156 pages of briefings and correspondence.

Unfortunately, too many MSPs did not seem to have taken the trouble to read them. Many of the questions to Mr MacAskill were answered in the documents.

Not reading the paperwork is not uncommon - in one Public Petitions Committee meeting last session it was clear several committee members had not read the information given to them.

As is often seen in debates, and exposed yet again in the Megrahi session, too many of Holyrood's cannon-fodder are unable to think on their feet. They write their questions or script their speeches and do not have the wit to react quickly when they are overtaken by events.

There were a few notable contributions to the debate - Jack McConnell, Patrick Harvie and Malcolm Chisholm among them.

It is a pity the party leaders did not allow a free vote. It is likely it would have highlighted the divisions in public opinion over Megrahi more clearly.

The Scottish Tories know a thing or two about fundraising, but some of their efforts reveal why they are unlikely to succeed in mounting a successful campaign in Glasgow and west Scotland's working-class constituencies.

A gushing press release from the Ochil and South Perthshire Conservative and Unionist Association sent to every major newspaper, Sky TV and the BBC lets us know there was a "very successful fundraising strawberry tea on Sunday in Abernethy in the gardens of the Noel-Patons".

How genteel. Wonder if they will have something similar in Springburn to raise cash for the Glasgow North East by-election campaign ...