Two steps to make FMQs a much better political experience

INSIDE Holyrood, First Minister's Questions is the highlight of the week.

- Alan Grant Writer and Commentator

It is also the one session that someone who does not follow Scottish politics regularly is likely to see. It's always covered by the press, does well on social media, and snippets of it can be heard on most broadcast media.

FMQs emerged during the first Scottish Parliament in 2000. It has since undergone changes. In 2003, it was brought forward in the day to allow school trips to attend. In 2001, then-Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick involved more backbench MSPs. And, in 2016, the session was extended to 45 minutes.

All of these, as well as the scrapping of scripted diary questions, were welcome and have improved FMQs by tackling specific problems.

It is in this spirit of revision and improvement that further changes should be made to First Minister's Questions; each to deal with a problem that holds it back.

The first problem is straightforward; there is not enough FMQs to go around.

As it stands, the exchanges between the First Minister and the leader of the opposition and the secondary leader of the opposition take up a disproportionate amount of time, leaving the other leaders, the Scottish Greens and Scottish Liberal Democrats, without a question each week.