Pat And Mick.

It would appear that it isn't only the police that have high rates of sick leave, it also appears to be endemic in Scotland's national economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise.

"Staff at the jobs and regeneration quango Scottish Enterprise ran up more than 17,000 sick days over a year. The Conservatives, who obtained the figures, said they substantiated a common complaint from Scots business people that they never met the same person from the publicly funded body twice."

That's a lot of sickies.

On the NHS. Not.

"SCOTLAND'S LARGEST quango is set to use £500,000 of public money to buy health insurance for its staff."

It says it all about the modern NHS in the modern Scotland.

More money than ever before is being on Scotland's NHS, but still major organisations feel the need to give their employees a better deal. But at the expense of the taxpayer, who pays for the lesser service and lumps it?

Golden goodbyes.

So, according to the Daily Record "A former boss of a quango (Scottish Enterprise) slated by MSPs has been given a pension worth more than £750,000."

The lesson: oversee an overspend of £50 million, and retire on an enhanced pension ... with a golden goodbye.

Mr Smith asks the obvious question ... why? Is it because Mr Carmichael knows where the proverbial bodies are buried. Oh, and by the way, Scottish Enterprise spends £500 million of yours and my money every year which is why we should care. No wonder he is smiling.