The National:

THE BBC's Scotland editor Sarah Smith may occasionally be a bit forgetful.

Back in May she forgot not to report her own opinion as fact and said the First Minister had "enjoyed the opportunity to make her own different lockdown rules” during the coronavirus pandemic.

That was apparently a slip of the tongue. She meant to say embraced, but enjoyed came out.

Her forgetfulness reached new heights this morning however, when she seemed to forget about her own mother.

READ MORE: Sarah Smith report on FM is BBC's most complained about item this year

In the wake of the list of new peers being announced, a list which was called "the worst kind of cronyism" by the SNP's Pete Wishart after it included such political heavyweights as Brexiteer Ian Botham and Boris Johnson's brother, Smith tweeted: "Theresa May’s husband Philip is to get a knighthood. Just like Dennis Thatcher before him.

"I’m sure they were both supportive of their partners in No 10. But how many political wives have ever been given a Damehood? Why do men have to be rewarded for supporting their spouses?"

Though Smith's point was admirable in its intent, following up on her public criticism of the BBC's gender pay gap, it has one glaring flaw.

That flaw should have been obvious to Sarah Smith, daughter of former Labour leader John Smith and Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill.

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Within a year of her father John's tragic death in 1994, his wife Elizabeth had been made a peer.

And she is not the only political wife to have been raised to the Lords, as many Twitter users pointed out. 

Baron Andrew Adonis wrote: "Florence Bevin was given a damehood after the death of Ernie Bevin in 1951.

"There is a long list of wives of top politicians being honoured - wives of Disraeli, Churchill, Gaitskell & Major all got damehoods or peerages."

To Smith's credit she did later remember her mother, adding to her previous tweet: "The glaring flaw in this argument is obviously my Mother’s peerage.

"I will shut up now - if no one tells her I forgot about my own Mum!"