Monty: Will a real Liberal ever stand up?

Since I resigned from the Conservative Party in 2005 I have found the liberation from feeling compelled to support most, if not all, of what its leaders might espouse intellectually invigorating and good for the soul.

In 2007 I gave only my regional vote to the Conservatives and in 2010 I continue to have an open mind – open, that is, to who best might remove Gordon Brown from office and consequently begin to reduce the involvement of the state in our daily lives.

My mother's family was of Scottish Borders Liberal stock. My father's family was from Leith with Labour in their blood. I don't have a Tory gene in my make-up - it was because the Conservatives under Thatcher offered the closest thing to free trade classical Liberals that I fell under her spell.

I have sometimes found the policies of the Liberal Democrats on public finances (scaling back debt) or taxation (using tax cuts to stimulate growth) to be attractive and I have always admired the abilities of Tavish Scott. A likeable politician whom I have played golf and football with, he has that most desirous of things that too few politicians possess – a hinterland.

I could easily consider supporting the Liberal Democrats were they not such slavish followers of the European Union or have a tendency to ban everything that is meant to be bad for us or society (or was that just Donald Gorrie speaking?) Still, at this coming election I might be persuaded to give them my vote, thanks probably to some, if not all, of the utterances of Vince Cable – in particular his willingness to speak out against the unsustainable public spending programme of Brown's government before the lily-livered duet of Cameron and Osborne found the location of their spleens (revealed to them by a focus group, no doubt).

Sadly, I now think I am going to strike the Liberal Democrats off my list of possibilities. Tavish Scott has just announced that if the Liberal Democrats have anything to do with it they will see to it that Holyrood will receive £300 million that it would otherwise not get so that it can spend it on... well it doesn't matter what.

The point is that even in this worst British recession of living memory for which the spend, spend, spend attitude of collectivist politicians of all colours has a lot to answer for Tavish still wants to spend rather than cut.

What a shame. What a wrong turning. What a turn-off.

Will no one at Holyrood tell it as it is, that the spending in the fabricated debt-financed "good years" was too high then and it is certainly too high now? Will no one in Scotland stand up for the virtues of true Liberalism - that the road to prosperity is a more modest state doing less better and costing less?

Will a real Liberal ever stand up?

Glasgow North East, Eileen Baxendale, Liberal Democrats - Making the Difference in Glasgow North East

Another day in the by-election campaign and more doom and gloom statistics for the good people of Glasgow North East to contend with.

We should be helping people not drowning them in statistics about unemployment and benefits.

I want to put my 20+ years experience as a social worker and manager to good use.

Tavish Scott and I have met people from all across the constituency, employed, unemployed, at school, college and university, pensioners who have done their bit and many more besides.

They are looking for answers, not headlines and because I'm not a career politician like some of the others I want to be given that chance tomorrow and put my experience from the real world to good use here in Glasgow North East and help them get the answers.

I want to ask the Governments and the Council how the spending in Glasgow is allocated, down to the last penny and is it fair? Is it going to the right people?

I am certain that the Liberal Democrats and I can make a difference and provide the change in Glasgow North East that is so badly needed.

Labour have had 74 years and have failed. The Conservatives are to busy propping up the SNP in Holyrood and not making the right calls in Westminster.

They voted with Labour on the Iraq war when Charles Kennedy and Ming Campbell led the Liberal Democrats opposition to the unjust and illegal war.

The Conservatives got it massively wrong on Europe and the recession when Vince Cable led the way, a long time before the experts.

We can't trust the SNP, just look at the promises they made in 2007, knowing full well they could never keep them all, just to get elected!

It is this legacy of broken promises and bad decisions from both Holyrood and Westminster as well as the issue of MP expenses that are losing politicians respect.

Well I'm a different kind of politician, I'm a real person and I believe working together we can change Glasgow North East, and its time for that change tomorrow.

By voting for the Liberal Democrats let's bring a halt to the nonsense and change Glasgow North East's future for ever.

The polling stations are open from 7am to 10pm and you don't need your polling card to vote.

Eileen Baxendale
Liberal Democrat candidate

David Maddox: The growing influence of George Lyon

In these days when black apparently is the new white and vice versa, little should surprise. After all this day that is now drawing to an end was the day that the Tories called for bankers to lose their bonuses and the once upon a time socialist Labour party defended the bonuses.

Then we were also asked to believe that the avid Celtic fan and Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy had had a word with the bank to keep his team's bitter rivals Rangers in business and players.

But it is the story of a Rangers fan that is even more interesting - former Liberal Democrat Scottish Minister George Lyon (pictured right).

When he was turfed out as an MSP in 2007 many (including some in his own party) hoped they were bidding a not so fond farewell to the controversial politician. However, in June this year he returned to frontline politics as his party's one and only Scottish MEP. Since then there have been growing signs of his influence within the party at a time when the Scottish leader Tavish Scott appears to be losing his grip slightly.

Even the unfortunate affair of Rangers was taken jokingly by some as a sign of Lyon's power. Mr Scott issued a press release earlier today demanding that Mr Murphy intervened. was this because the Rangers loving George Lyon asked him to it was queried in the corridors of Holyrood?

But joking apart, there is one serious issue with which the two men appear to be having a power struggle - an independence referendum. Mr Lyon made it clear ahead of the party's conference in Bournemouth that he thought there should be one, breaking the party line set by Mr Scott to oppose a plebiscite. odd considering that Mr Lyon clearly enjoys singing Rule Britannia. Since then there has been a groundswell of support among members, candidates and some of the grandees in favour of Mr Lyon's position, despite Mr Scott's protestations.

The two shall have their day at the behind closed doors Lib Dem special conference which will discuss the matter. The way things are going you would not bet against Mr Lyon coming out on top.

Chris Mackie: LibDems 1 Labour 1 in Rangers roundup

Proof, if proof were needed, that the pervasive influence of the Old Firm extends into every nook and cranny of Scottish life reached us this morning as politicians began to wade into the ongoing travails of Glasgow Rangers FC.

The LibDems were first, calling on Scottish Secretary (and Celtic fan) Jim Murphy to intervene in the situation that has seen a representative of HBoS placed on the board of the Ibrox club to monitor spending.

Tavish Scott (bizarrely, a Liverpool supporter) said all football fans - even those of a green and white hooped hue - would be concerned by reports that the club had been threatened with administration by a bank substantially helped by the use of taxpayers' money.

“If the Lloyds group can take down Rangers, there won’t be many professional clubs left in Scotland," exclaimed Tavish excitedly.

Improbably, he was joined by Labour's Frank McAveety, who crossed the Glasgow divide to offer his support to the Teddy Bears, noting gravely: "Anyone who cares about Scottish football should be concerned about the financial difficulties experienced by one of our biggest clubs."

Despite The Steamie's enquiries, the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party have, perhaps surprisingly, declined to become embroiled in the row. And we didn't even phone the Greens.

Gerri Peev: Cable tangled

The storm clouds have gathered over Bournemouth. Overnight, a whale stranded itself on the beach. Perhaps it was an omen of the disastrous day that lay ahead. First up, Vince Cable was ambushed in a "shadow cabinet" meeting of the Lib Dems over his mansion tax policy. Cable is a clever man who has a good run in the press and with the wider public. There are even some predictions that his mansion tax will go down well with voters. It could even be pitched to those on the right as being preferable to taxing income, which is the product of hard work. But the normally careful Cable was left tangled by not sorting the detail of the policy. He seems too affable a man to have let the stardust go to his head, but colleagues were left raging that he had not consulted them over such a fundamental policy change.

Next up, was the press briefing with Clegg's chief of staff, Danny Alexander, who provided the press with a third statement on what the Lib Dems thought should happen to the Attorney General Baroness Scotland, who has been fined for hiring an illegal immigrant as her cleaner. While Chris Huhne took to the airwaves to say she should be sacked, Clegg said she should stay. Meanwhile Alexander suggested she consider her position. During the briefing, a Blackberry alert came through with the message that Clegg had said she should perhaps consider her position. By the end of the day a statement came through saying that her position "looked untenable".

Then came the onstage swipes at Clegg's leadership from his own frontbenchers: pensions spokesman Steve Webb said the party had had enough despair for a week, while Dr Evan Harris, the spokesman on science, suggested that Clegg had some way to go before becoming a great leader.

And then Clegg was bounced into firming up his opposition to a referendum in a BBC Scotland interview, after The Scotsman's story this morning. Tavish Scott had claimed that perhaps colleagues who suggested the policy would be reversed had ingested too many pina coladas. For the record, this correspondent was not sharing cocktails with her sources at the time of acquiring the story. Perhaps Scott was just worried he was on the rocks?

To cap the day off, journos were given a few extracts from Clegg's speech...There is a killer line in it which voters must listen out for tomorrow. The old addage that any publicity is good publicity is truly being stretched for the Lib Dems this week. It almost stirs sympathy for them.

David Maddox: Troubled times for Tavish

The Scotsman front page today by my colleague Gerri Peev has certainly caused a stir in the otherwise quiet corridors of Holyrood.
The idea that the Lib Dems are considering backing a referendum has come as a surprise, although the party's vacillating record of changing its mind on various issues means that we should have half expected it.
The interesting aspect here is that Tavish Scott, the Scottish leader, has been adamantly against a referendum in the current economic circumstances. Most people believe that privately he is against one in almost all circumstances bar an outright SNP majority when his party's opposition would make no difference anyway.
What seems to be happening here is that Mr Scott and the Scottish party are being bounced into supporting the referendum by the UK party leadership, in one stroke undermining the supposed autonomy of the Scottish party in the Lib Dems' federal set-up.
Apparently pressure is coming from Vince Cable, the man most people want to be chancellor, who is now the Twickenham MP but was a Glasgow councillor.
What seems to be driving this is that the Lib Dems think a Tory victory will undermine support for the Union in Scotland and they believe that with Labour rapidly disintegrating they are the only party capable of saving the UK. They believe that the SNP can win an outright majority in 2011, which in my view at least, shows a surprising lack of understanding of the consequences of the Holyrood electoral system which mitigates against any majority.
Call a referendum now and you don't have to fight one at a time more convenient for the Nats.
It all echoes former Labour leader Wendy Alexander's ill-judged: "Bring it on!"
But this is bad for Mr Scott. During the late summer he lost the confidence of his Scottish party over his views on keeping Megrahi locked up in Scotland, now the UK leadership seems to question his judgement on a referendum.

David Maddox: ....and speaking of the Welsh

The leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams (pictured), was in Holyrood today to meet her Scottish counterpart Tavish Scott.

Ms Williams, 38, became the first woman leader of a major party in the Welsh Assembly.

She shares one thing in common with Mr Scott in that she is credited/ blamed for wrecking her party's chance of going into a rainbow coalition to run the Principalities. While her objections though were more working with the Tories rather than Plaid Cymru (the Welsh Nats), it was Mr Scott's supposed dislike of the SNP, before he became leader, that is rumoured to have been the main block to a coalition with them and the Greens.

But the visit did bring one slightly cruel suggestion from one of the Lib Dems political adversaries based on last weekend's European election results.

It was speculated that Ms Williams was visiting to get advice on how to reach the dizzy heights of the fourth place and 11.5 per cent of the popular vote achieved by her Scottish colleagues from the fifth place with 10.7 per cent of the vote her party managed in Wales.

But on the bright side, maybe George Lyon might be prevailed upon to represent Welsh Lib Dems in Brussels as well as the Scottish ones.

David Maddox: Has Alex Salmond undermined the Lockerbie bomber decision?

The First Minister faced questions today on whether al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bomb atrocity, should be returned to Libya after that country signed a prisoner transfer agreement with Britain.

He was at pains to say that he could not prejudge the decision which will be made, he said, by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill now that an application has been made.

However, he was reminded by Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott that in a statement to MSPs in 2007 when he fumed about the UK government discussing setting up a prisoner transfer agreement, he said that al-Megrahi should serve all of his sentence in Scotland.

Then SNP bacbencher Christine Grahame alleged that there was a conspiracy by the UK government to stop an appeal going ahead so that further light will not be shed on the murky issue of the Lockerbie bomb.

And Mr seemed to agree with her that it would prefer due process (ie the appeal) to continue.

Former Labour First Minister Jack McConnell made a point of order asking the Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson to look at this, which he is going to do.

The issue will be raised by hacks in the post FMQs briefing shortly. Read the conclusion of this intrigue in tomorrow's Scotsman.

David Maddox: Time for the banks to show all

Tavish Scott, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader known for once marauding with fellow Vikings through Holyrood (as pictured right), has now turned his axe on another well barred door.

He has an interesting motion down in parliament calling on banks, which are nationalised in all but name, to come under the auspices of the Freedom of Information Act.

His point being that a lack of accountability and transparency is one of the reasons that an industry that has been a source of pride for Scots for more than 300 years was laid low. Bank of Scotland is no more and furious Royal Bank shareholders who at times looked more like a linch mob declared their bank dead in all but name too at their annual general meeting today.

The FOI for banks idea is one that has already been pushed by the Lib Dems down south in Westminster, however, there is an interesting element to Mr Scott's motion. FOI is a devolved matter and the Scottish Government is currently consulting on extending it.

Therefore it is possible that nationalised or largely state owned backs based in Scotland could become subject to FOI if the Scottish Government are inclined to agree with Mr Scott.

Here is the motion:

*S3M-3827 Tavish Scott: Freedom of Information and the Banking Sector—That the Parliament reaffirms its commitment to the principles of openness and transparency that underpin freedom of information legislation; believes that the public has a right to expect transparency from public organisations and from private organisations that perform public functions; regrets that, with the taxpayer holding a majority stake in two major Scottish banks, the UK Government does not allow freedom of information legislation to cover banks that have been bailed out with public funds, and therefore calls on the UK Government to amend freedom of information legislation to include nationalised banks and banks where the taxpayer holds a majority stake.

David Maddox: FMQs - Tories first to get unwanted double

Annabel Goldie (pictured right), the Scottish Conservative leader, made it an unwanted double today for her party after she was pulled up for insulting First Minister Alex Salmond with a nickname - "two salaries Salmond."

The strictures from Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson (Conservative) followed a similar lecture to by Speaker Michael Martin to Ms Goldie's UK leader David Cameron in Westminster yesterday for describing Gordon Brown as "phony" during PMQs.

Mr Salmond speculated that this may have been the first time a party has achieved the double.

Ms Goldie's questions were actually directed at the SNP's insistence (supported by all parties except the Tories) to push forward with free prescriptions for all. She claimed this would lead to £40 million of cuts in frontline health services.

Ironically, considering her foray into nicknames, she accused the First Minister of being "more interested in headlines and sound bites."

Mr Salmond gently reminded her that she and her party voted for the measure in the budget.

Earlier Labour leader Iain Gray accused Mr Salmond's government of not acting fast enough on apprenticeship guarantees. He raised the problems of a 19-year-old constituent Lewis Doig who could lose his apprenticeship just three months before he qualifies as a tradesman.

Tavish Scott, the Lib Dem leader, meanwhile pointed out that the UK government's economic recovery plan had the second least amount of green measures of any major economy after Spain. Mr Salmond happily agreed to publish the equivalent Scottish figures to prove his administration is better.

And stop press (although it was already in a popular tabloid this morning) the Scottish and UK governments at last agree on something- introducing legislation to stop more former prisoners from suing for compensation for having to slop out. In answer to a question from Nationalist MSP Stewart Maxwell (a former minister) Mr Salmond said that he would look at deducting board and lodgings from any compensation awarded.

David Maddox: Is good breeding the secret to political success?

I often think it's comical!

How Nature always does contrive!

That every boy and every gal

That’s born into the world alive

Is either a little Liberal

Or else a little Conservative!

Times have changed since November 25 1882 when these famous words of Private Willis from Gilbert and Sullivan's Sentry Song (in their operetta Iolanthe) were first sung in the Savoy Theatre in London. And circumstances are even more different in Scotland than they are south of the border with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats now only occupying third and fourth place in people's affections respectively.
On a good day the Tories and Lib Dems may get a third of the political support between them in Scottish polls and, at least in the Lib Dems case, that share seems to be shrinking rapidly.
So as the Lib Dems are failing to persuade people to support their cause, they seem to have hit on a new strategy - put virile youngish men in positions of leadership and get them to produce supporters for the future. The tactic seems to be working.
UK leader Nick Clegg, 42, and his wife Miriam (both pictured left) have just had their third child - a son named Miguel born on February 22. Mr Clegg pointedly avoided last weekend's Scottish party conference, no doubt to spend some quality canvassing time with the youngster.
Scottish leader Tavish "Viking" Scott, 42, and his new wife, BBC journalist Kirsten Campbell, are due to have their first child in July. It will be Mr Scott's fourth.
Scottish deputy leader Michael Moore, 43, and his wife Alison (both pictured left) are due to have a child in June.

No wonder poor Alistair Carmichael, 43, the party's spokesman for Scotland in Westminster, was gently chided by Mr Scott in his conference speech yesterday for not doing his bit for party membership.

David Maddox: Lib Dem conference - subliminal messages

As the final day of the Lib Dem Scottish conference gets underway we are already getting ready for the party's young energetic leader Tavish Scott to get to his feet and deliver his first speech since being voted to the top office.
But, whatever you think about the position of the Scottish Lib Dems at the moment - the polls suggest they are facing a possible doomsday or two in upcoming elections - but one interesting point is that their choice of venue this year is very positive.
The Perth Concert Hall (pictured right) is a new looking fresh location, very accessible and easy to organise in. It gives the impression of a party which knows what it is doing, is up and coming and is very open.
No wonder the Nationalists were also here for their autumn conference and the Conservatives will be here for their Scottish conference.
In contrast last week we all crammed into the Caird Hall (pictured left) in Dundee for Labour's Scottish conference. It is tired looking with stained carpet (not necessarily with blood), peeling wallpaper, difficult to find your way around, generally disorganised and anything but easily accessible. Any party that is on its way down would fit well into it.
Venues give strong subliminal messages - the Lib Dems this week have got it right and Labour unfortunately fitted the image many have of them now.

David Maddox: FMQs - Independence defiance

In the face of certain defeat tonight over an independence referendum Alex Salmond made it clear that this is one policy that his party will not be shelved despite the parliamentary arithmatic.
Under attack from Labour leader Iain Gray, Mr Salmond took great pleasure in reminding his opponent that "consistency on the referendum is not Labour's strongest suit."
After all it was Labour less than a year ago, he pointed out, who backed a referendum under the ill-fated Wendy Alexander leadership. And he quoted Mr Gray's own appearance on Newsnight Scotland in May last year when he said Labour would support a referendum "whenever it comes."
But Mr Gray's response may be the historical footnote to the SNP's great missed opportunity.
"It was the First Minister who said 'no!'," he said before underlining the fact that the offer has now well and truly been withdrawn.
Which leaves the question of whether in retrospect the SNP really did miss an opportunity by not going for a referendum when Labour's support was there and Labour was so weak the SNP would have been in a great position to win. Maybe this will in time go down in history as the Nats great missed opportunity.
Both Tory leader Annabel Goldie and Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott asked about the appalling case of the death of the Dundee toddler Brandon Muir, which provoked a strong defence of social workers from the First Minister and an admission that nobody is really sure how many children are in similar circumstances to the little child.
Read more on all these exchanges in the Scotsman tomorrow.

David Maddox: John Farquhar Munro found

Well the mystery has been solved. One SNP spin doctor suggested to me that there may be a Nationalist search party looking for John Farquhar Munro (pictured) combing his Ross, Skye and Inverness West constituency to try to get him to Holyrood to support them in the referendum vote.
But, it seems they may be looking in the wrong place.
A Lib Dem spin doctor has just e-mailed to say that JFM is in Germany for health reasons, which is a fair excuse to be away and certainly different to the last occasion when he was given leave to bury a cow.
However, they are a hard bunch in the Lib Dems. According to the Lib Dem press office, chief whip Mike Rumbles actually turned down the original request to be away, even though it was health related. In the end it was party leader Tavish Scott who gave permission for his absense.
But the official line from the Lib Dems, given the nature of today's vote and JFM's support for a referendum against party policy, is that his absense is "a happy coincidence."

David Maddox - FMQs: Who is to blame for bankers?

There is nothing more likely to get politicians going than to find out that some industry fat cat has managed to manipulate the system to get a big pay-off. The same logic rarely applies to themselves.

So it was not surprising that FMQs today was dominated by the £650,000 a year pension for life that the former Chief executive of RBS Sir Fred Goodwin (pictured left), still just 50, has been awarded affter he led the once great bank to ruin. That would pay for more than a dozen MSPs afterall.

But in the fine tradition of finger pointing it took just a couple of questions for the blame game to start on who was responsible.

Labour leader Iain Gray suggested that it was Sir George Mathewson (pictured right), Sir Fred's predecessor, who also happens to be the "chief economic adviser" to Alex Salmond, the First Minister.

He asked Mr Salmond "which side are you on?" and went on to point out that Sir George was a supporter of short selling that had led to the collapse of some banks and bonuses.

"Iain Gray should remember that he's here to question the actions of the First Minister," countered Mr Salmond. He then went on to state that it was the UK Government in October which arranged Sir Fred's pay off, a view backed later by Lib Dem leader tavish Scott.

Only Annabel Goldie steered clear of the topic, perhaps mindful of the often made accusation that hers is the party for fat cats. Afterall who else would be willing to attend dinners to raise £530,000 for the party, like the one which was declared in yesterday's Electoral Commisions donations.

David Maddox: FMQs - Local Income Tax recriminations

As might be expected Alex Salmond, the First Minister, was having to fend off attacks over his humiliating decision to dump LIT yesterday.

Opening the salvos against the Mr Salmond was, as usual, Iain Gray, the Labour leader.

He said Mr Salmond was "throwing the Scottish Government's programme for Scotland in reverse..." That the FM "has been caught red-handed selling short Scotland's voters..." and was "retreating in the snow from LIT like Napoleon from Moscow."

He went on to ask if the FM would drop his last remaining manifesto promise on a referendum on independence and for good measure tore up a copy of the SNP manifesto with some effort (I heard he had been down at the gym lately).

A combative Mr Salmond refused to take up Mr Gray's request to apologise to voters (or impressed by the tearing antics) and hit back reminding Mr Gray that it was the £1 billion cuts for Scotland's budget planned by Labour in the Treasury that did for LIT.

He said that apologies should come from the "council tax cabal of Labour and the Tories" and the Treasury for chopping Scotland's budget. He reminded Labour of the "Duncan McNeil declaration" of last year where the chairman of Labour's parliamentary group said they would support a referendum whenever it came.

Tory leader Annabel Goldie asked if the LIT policy was so good "why he didn't go to the ramparts to fight for it?"

She asked if he will now cut council tax bills.

Mr Salmond mocked her for her party having five policies on the council tax in recent times and said that a cut was now impossible because of the cuts in the Scottish budget from Westminster.

Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott reminded Mr Salmond of his election address to the people of Gordon (the FM's constituency) which showed smiling people saying they would vote SNP because it would abolish the council tax. "Are they still smiling?" he asked.

"We did not have the votes," said Mr Salmond.

Then Mr Scott changed tack. Why is there not a minister for economic recovery from the ministerial reshuffle but a new super minister for independence? Drop the independence bill he demanded.

Mr Salmond said Mr Scott can't have it both ways complaining that he dropped one manifesto promise and then demanding he drops another.

And he reminded him that on the day Mr Scott was elected Lib Dem leader he said "I'm not intuitively against" the Scottish people deciding their own future.

"Go back to your first day," he called, and "let the people of Scotland have the democratic right to decide their own future."

David Maddox: FMQs - end of the cosy consensus

After yesterday's budget love-in which spilt over into this morning's Lib Dem sponsored debates on borrowing powers and the financial services industry it seemed like we had entered some Never Neverland full of politicians giving each other consensual mutual massages - really quite nauseating.

But, thankfully, First Minister's Questions (FMQs) has at last brought us back to normal. Labour leader Iain Gray has picked one of his old favourites, the Scottish Futures Trust, to attack Alex Salmond on.

"Just PFI with window dressing," said Mr Gray quoting Professor John Kay from a Scotsman article. "Where are the schools, hospitals and jobs?"

As this is third or maybe fourth time Mr Gray has now chosen this subject for FMQs, Mr Salmond's response is well practised. This goes as follows: Yes the SNP is building schools ("started by Labour," cry out Labour MSPs, as they have done on the other occasions), the problems are Gordon Brown's recession or depression as we must now call it, and just wait for Gordon Brown to cut £1 billion from the Scottish budget to pay off his £1 trillion recession debt.

Tory leader Annabel Goldie was keen to find out how many times Mr Salmond had met the Prime Minister. However it was clear she was more keen to promote the Conservative's new helpourhighstreet.com website launched after the SNP agreed to the Tory/ Labour idea (depending which party you are speaking to) of having a town centre regeneration fund of £60 million. She was to be disappointed though, Mr Salmond made it clear he would rather meet Mr Brown than log on to her party's website.

But, the spirit of love (for the Nationalists) has not been dropped by the SNP's new bedfellows, the Lib Dems. Tavish Scott, Scotland's fourth party's leader, chose to use his questions to attack Mr Salmond's greatest enemy Gordon Brown especially his line on "British jobs for British people."

"Would the First Minister use the phrase Scottish jobs for Scottish workers?" he asked.

"Not in the manner the Prime Minister did," answered Mr Salmond.

Which poses the question, what manner would he use it in?

David Maddox: FMQs - the budget recriminations continue

No surprises, FMQs has been dominated by yesterday's events and the defeat of the Scottish Government's budget.

Labour leader Iain Gray went on the attack and said that there was no sign of First Minister Alex Salmond (pictured) and the SNP losing the "hubris and arrogance" that brought them to this position.

But Mr Gray was himself under severe fire for leading the no vote, especially after he seemed to suggest that Scotland could wait until June for a new budget after the new financial year has started.

A furious First Minister Alex Salmond, his jowels rippling withe rage, said the £1.8 billion lost in the budget would equate to 35,000 jobs. Tory leader Annabel Goldie went on to accuse Labour of trying to "stage a bloodless coup to esconse Iain Gray as First Minister."

But, interestingly, given my posting below, the exchanges between Mr Salmond and Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott were in tone, at least, very conciliatory. None of the personal animosity of the Scottish Inter Faith Council and the truth inquiry of latter weeks. Mr Salmond pointed out that the Lib Dems' (now dropped) 2p income tax cut would lead to a net loss of 600 jobs and had no majority across the chamber even if the SNP were "miraculously" converted to it.

As mentioned earlier, the two are set to have talks. There could be some interesting developments.

You can read all the in depth analysis and Rab McNeil's sketch in tomorrow's Scotsman.

David Maddox: Question - When is a principle a non-principle? Answer - When it's a Lib Dem principle

The Lib Dems have dropped their demands for a 2p reduction in income tax in the Scottish budget.

This is after months of their chief whip Mike Rumbles (pictured top right) corridors of Holyrood berating opponents for denying their constituents a tax cut.

The volte face also completely torpedoes their economic strategy as well as their 2011 election strategy. The idea was that they would sell themselves as the party which would leave more money in people's pockets.

Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott (pictured left from his days as a mad viking) hinted at the change on the radio this morning, but senior colleagues have now briefied journalists to confirm it.

So what has changed?

Well, after yesterday there is a new budget to fight for and the Lib Dems see the chance of influencing it. Mr Scott and his finance spokesman Jeremy Purvis have meetings scheduled with Finance Secretary John Swinney this afternoon.

The irony in all this is that the Greens, who in a fit of pique brought the budget down yesterday when they had all but won £33 million in next year's budget to start their free insulation scheme, may now get muscled out by the Lib Dems and get nothing.

Hamish Macdonell - Tavish TV

SOMEONE should tell politicians that its no good going after the 'youf' vote by adopting what they think are young and trendy communication methods.
Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott is the latest to fall for it, launching 'Tavish TV' on YouTube to get his message across.
It might have worked, had Tavish not decided to sit in his MSP's think pod, with a bright sky behind him spouting a complicated polemic about the intricate details of the Inter Faith Council and whether or not its funding had been resolved.
Lord Foulkes (see blogs passim) started this dubious craze, it didn't really work for him and it is even worse for Tavish.
You Tube? Absolutely.
ends

David Maddox: The strange case of the Scottish Inter Faith Council money

Before I finally sign off for the day, it is possibly worth relating one episode that happened in Holyrood today, which vexed many of our elected representatives.
No less than five points of order were made about an answer Alex Salmond, the First Minister, made to Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott in First Minister's questions last week.
The issue was over the funding for the Scottish Inter Faith Council. Mr Scott asked why it had not received any funding and why staff had been notified of redundancy.
Mr Salmond stood up and, without even looking at his notes, said it had been resolved, the SIFC would get its money and no staff would lose their jobs. This completely wrong-footed Mr Scott and made him look rather foolish, much to the mirth of Salmond and his faithful followers.
But it emerged quickly that it was not poor research from the Lib Dems that had led to this apparent gaffe. An e-mail went to SIFC staff just before FMQs saying they would have to renegotiate and the author of that e-mail, SIFC convener Major Alan Dixon (Salvation Army), sent another e-mail to Mr Scott the evening after FMQs saying it had not been resolved.
It seems that the final agreement was made yesterday, but the SNP maintain that it was really done and dusted by Justice Minister Fergus Ewing before Christmas.
Today Mr Ewing made a "point of order" stating that point and later correspondence from Mjr Dixon from January 6 before FMQs on January 8 confirming this was passed around.
Counter points of order were made by Mr Scott, his predecessor as Lib Dem leader, Nicol Stephen, and Labour's Richard Baker. All said that as the matter was only resolved yesterday it was clear, in their view, that Mr Salmond had misled parliament.
The Presiding Officer, Alex Fergusson, gave his stock answer that ministerial answers were not his responsbility but was part of the ministerial code which is policed by Mr Salmond.
Mr Fergusson said he would reflect on the issue and possibly make a statement after voting if there was anything to add. He did not, so we can assume there wasn't, even though Independent MSP Margo MacDonald in a fifth point of order earlier had suggested he was responsible for maintaining standards in parliament.
It has built up some momentum for parliamentary rules to be changed to try to force ministers to apologise if they mislead MSPs in the chamber.
But as one final addendum to the whole sage, the SNP spin doctors have let slip that the real problem was that SIFC was asking for £360,000 next year, triple its previous grant of £120,000.

From all this the following conclusions have been made by various observers:

1. Mr Salmond should not have hidden behind a junior minister today and made a statement himself.

2. Either Mjr Dixon is very confused or he was trying to be clever by playing one party off another to get an awful lot more money.

3. Mr Scott has been made to look a fool even if he was possibly misled.

4. It is not entirely clear if the misleading was done by Mjr Dixon or Mr Salmond or if there was any intentional misleading at all.

5. Parliamentary rules do need to be changed to make ministers more accountable for what they say and give the Presiding Officer, even if he is reluctant, a stronger policing role.

6. Alex Salmond cannot be expected to police himself or other ministers through the ministerial code and an independent body or commissioner may be required.

7. When all is said and done SIFC have enough money to continue and nobody will lose their jobs, which has to be the bottom line in all this.

David Maddox: Lib Dems get ready to Rumbles

There used to be a rule among English cricket selectors that they should always pick bowlers to the suit the conditions for swing, spin or pace. It did not stop them losing with a monotonous regularity but somehow it made sense.
The same could be said of Tavish Scott's apparently strange choice of personel in his budget negotiations with the SNP. Instead of sending in his spinner - finance spokesman Jeremy Purvis - to weedle out a clever agreement he decided to rely on the less subtle tactics of his chief whip Mike Rumbles, who, if he were a bowler, would have a stock delivery of bouncing the ball at pace straight towards his opponent's chin.
Now I understand that Mr Purvis was not best pleased to be sidelined, but it was clear for all that the Lib Dems had no intention of striking an agreement with the Nats, thus the choice of Mr Rumbles.
The issue at stake here is that Mr Scott announced in his first week as Scottish Lib Dem leader that he wanted a 2p cut in income tax using the Scottish variable rate. This would mean a cut of £800 million in the budget which the SNP have made clear they will not countenance. It also means the Lib Dems cannot ask for new money for new projects so there was really little to discuss.
Mr Rumbles has been striding around Holyrood for weeks now berating opponents for not supporting the cut, so will have relished the chance to wag his finger at Finance Secretary John Swinney.
It may be the training he received in the army where he became a major, but his usual style made it difficult for most of us to believe the earnest pleas of the Lib Dem spin doctors that "he went into the meeting willing to be constructive."
I understand the meeting was short and went as planned for the Lib Dems: MR entered. MR demanded that JS accepted a cut in personal tax. JS said no. MR stormed out. Job done.
But even though Mr Scott may have picked the right bowler for this particular wicket, the question is, like the old England cricket team, will they still end up losing?

Kenny Farquharson: Tavish Scott on more powers

Tavish Scott, the Scottish Lib Dem leader, wrote an excellent article for today's Scotland on Sunday that we were unable to fit in the paper on a very busy news day.

It's available on the SoS website, but is a little hard to find, so I thought I would reproduce it here. It deserves a wider airing.

The Lib Dems are certainly the ones to watch in the whole Calman process of deciding what new powers Holyrood should have.

Here's the piece...

TAVISH SCOTT:

Recently we've seen a return to politics on a grand scale. In the Pre-Budget Report big choices were made. VAT down here. Top rate tax up there. Previously we might have seen Gordon Brown put pensions up by just 75p, or he would tinker with the economic cycle to make his Golden Rule seem a bit more plausible. Compared to that, the actions we are seeing now are revolutionary.

And I think this changes the way the debate on new powers for the Scottish Parliament will run from now on. The economic events of the last couple of months convince me that people will want to see more lively and responsive government at all levels. That has big implications for the work of the Calman Commission on the future of devolution.

As the economy tumbles, as tens of thousands of bank jobs are put at risk, as home repossession becomes a real risk for thousands, people in Scotland aren't much impressed by a Scottish Government that varies its Budget by just 0.3% to respond. I am not sure there are many people who find it a sympathetic sight to have a Scottish First Minister apparently without the levers - or gumption - to react to a crisis.

The old argument from the do-nothing brigade has gone out of the window. They used to tell us that Scotland shouldn't have any more powers because it might interfere with the Golden Rule on the economy, or bring some other calamity. That was before the Golden Rule went out of the window.

I have argued for Scottish controls over different kinds of taxation. We would gain proper accountability for our Scottish Government rather than a Scottish Parliament relying on an annual handout from another parliament.

And, perhaps, powers for the Scottish Government to borrow money are right in the frame. Whenever I go to visit engineering or construction companies or architects and planners they all tell me the same thing. Their industry is in trouble because the Scottish Government simply isn't getting new projects moving.

People used to say that the old Barnett formula offered stability and predictability. But, facing economic and financial shocks, that all looks a bit arbitrary and wooden right now. Who could have predicted that a log jam in health service building projects in England would mean a compulsory reduction in capital investment in Scotland? And that it would come just at the moment when Scottish industry needs it most, when value for money might be the best it's ever going to be, and when tens of thousands of construction jobs are at stake.

So this is where the Calman Commission need to focus. Look at the economic landscape. Look at how governments have had to react around the world. Be convinced that Scotland would benefit from a Government and a Parliament able to exercise lively and responsive government when we need it most. Government needs to be there for a crisis. And it needs the tools to do the job.