YOU had to look through your fingers as President-elect Trump appointed his cabinet.

Yes he has nominated a former soldier as his defence secretary, but a man with quite some baggage.

Iraq and Afghanistan veteran Pete Hegseth was removed from the security detail for the inauguration of incumbent president Joe Biden, because his tattoos were of concern. A Jerusalem Cross inking, some said, meant the TV chat show host was a potential extremist.

Robert F Kennedy, the septuagenarian scion of the Democrats’ golden family, son of RFK, nephew of JFK, and an avowed vaccine sceptic, will handle the Republican health portfolio and pro-fracker Chris Wright, energy.

Perhaps the most egregious of all is the appointment of arguably the most powerful man on the planet, Elon Musk, as a Sir Humphrey-esque head of the department of government efficiency, but with a total paucity of laughs despite Trump’s alarming similarities with Jim Hacker.

Worryingly, not one of them has held an elected office.

And as we brace ourselves for another four years of Trump in the Oval Office, President Biden has got his retaliation in early, a few weeks before he retires, by giving the green light for NATO weapons to be used against targets in Russia for the first time.

And while these missiles do not have the range to strike Moscow or St Petersburg, their symbolic first use on the 1,000th day of the conflict, and Putin’s decision in response to lower the criteria for which Moscow’s nuclear weapons could be launched, heralds a new strategic development in an already critically important tactical conflict.

With his close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin and threats to pull the US out of NATO, the last thing the world needs is a Trump second term.

I have no truck with zoos or fireworks and if it was down to me, Scotland would have neither. Therefore I am perturbed that their unlikely confluence has resulted in a louder call than any I have heard lately for fireworks to be banned.

This is not because of the terrifying effect they often have on elderly people and the dramatic impact they often have on military veterans, but because of the sad death in captivity of a baby red panda at Edinburgh Zoo on bonfire night.

It’s thought Roxie died of a panic attack brought on by fireworks being let off nearby. Roxie’s mother Ginger died the week before, it’s also thought as the result of the noise of fireworks.

I don’t go to zoos and I would never take a child to a zoo, because I believe animals belong in the wild and not in prison.

And that people continually put the welfare of animals before vulnerable human beings really saddens me.

Down many decades on Scotland’s soil, I have frequently crossed the Rubicon. Sadly I didn’t always know it at the time!

The Rubicon is a river in Italy which in Roman times marked the point of no return and once an army crossed it, there was no going back. Today I think the Rubicon is actually the Leven.

It baffles me, but having conducted a long and forensic examination, I can confirm that as I cross on the way home, my car radio suddenly drops any coverage of my favourite stations, BBC Radio Four and Classic FM. This means I cannot listen to them while driving around the G84 postcode.

This is irksome in the extreme. Perhaps this is because my car is so old it doesn’t have a DAB wotsit.

However, I get round the problem by simply reaching into the glove compartment for my cassette tapes and enjoying some banging 70s numbers.