When party divisions go too far

How much inter-party hatred must there exist for this to happen. Alex Salmond, the First Minister of the Scottish Parliament, asked that the Assembly express condolences and then suspend the days business as a mark of respect for the deaths of the 16 workers and crew of the helicopter which crashed into the North Sea yesterday. Lord George Foulkes, Labour peer and backbench MSP for the Lothians responded accusing Salmond of acting like a “quasi-head of State” hinting it was an attempt at suppressing the work of an Assembly whose role is to "hold the government to account" as today should have been First Minister's Questions (their PMQs). Foulkes argues Salmond is "trying to use this for political purposes".

So clearly there is little trust between the parties, particularly among Labour MSPs for Salmond it would appear. However, it all seems rather bizarre, something of an indictment of the Assembly and its members, and rather devalues the work of the Assembly. I am unsure exactly what is behind all of this, do share the details if you know, but is this really the right issue to use as a party political point by either side?

What's in a name 1

For the grand total of £100,000 the Scottish Executive has rebranded itself as the Scottish Government because, apparently, most people had no idea what an executive did. Research carried out suggested that the term government had more relevance and was in keeping with the mission of the "act like a government".

Is that the main reason though? Well the alternative purpose would be to state it governs as opposed to executes. The latter term is more often associated with an executor, someone who acts on behalf of others. Now possibly this could be liked to the notion of representation and the executive, executing on behalf of the Scottish voters; but perhaps Alex Salmond wants to be clear that the Scottish Executive does not execute on behalf of Westminster.

Whether it is a step towards some form of independence is dubious, however it may signal a greater decision making role, and a greater credibility. So perhaps the name is important. Providing they do not have MSGs (Members of the Scottish Government) as this could be confused with monosodium glutamate; a flavour enhancer notoriously bad for health. No comment needed.