David Maddox: Currying favour at Christmas

The idea that Christmas parties reflect the fortunes of their hosts seems to be confirmed with a comparison between this year and last year of the bashes arranged by Scotland's leading political rivals - SNP First Minister Alex Salmond and Labour's Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy.
Last year, despite the SNP losing heavily to Labour in the Glenrothes by-election, Mr Salmond still gave the impression he could turn water into wine or at least walk on water, while Labour appeared to be stuck in the doldrums.
So the 2008 Christmas party arranged by Mr Salmond for Scottish political hacks involved top notch award winning curry, lots of drinks and a long reception at Bute House, the First Minister's official residence.
Meanwhile Mr Murphy's staff forgot to send invitations to the media for an event which involved a few drinks and crisps and was lumped together with inviting various parts of Scotland's great and good.
How different it is this year. Last Thursday Mr Murphy entertained the political hacks with curry and drinks, including Scotland's strongest beer (since Brewdog's Tokyo was banned), at 7.8 per cent, perhaps symbolic of Labour's decision to torpedo the SNP's minimum pricing for booze policy. Overall the event, as did the host's demeanour, reflected a far more confident relaxed attitude encouraged by rising political fortunes.
Labour of course have just thumped the SNP in Glasgow North East while Mr Salmond appears to be struggling with the SNP behind in the polls and having no chance of getting its referendum. There is also the small matter of the education crisis which led to the sacking of Fiona Hyslop from the cabinet.
Which brings us on to Mr Salmond's hastily arranged Christmas do for the media this year. This afternoon we learnt that it has now been diaried at the Scottish Government offices in St Andrew's House for a few drinks for Thursday, the busiest day in parliament, for an hour and 15 minutes at 5.45pm, a time when most journalists are stuck on deadlines and unable to attend.
Mr Salmond's office said this was because the original date clashed with the Tartan Bollocks (The Scottish Parliament Journalist Association's annual dinner named after the award for the worst story of the year -NB this is not the story which cybernats most disapprove of).
But, many have seen this last minute arrangement as a reflection of the First Minister's waning fortunes. It certainly suggests he may be less happy than he was spending his time with journalists and that he is not exactly pleased with the coverage he is getting currently.
Of course the irony, if this is true, is that a party on the down would have more cause to try to get in the press's good books to get back into favour, but it seems that's not how politics, at least in Scotland, works.