We should admire the rubber-shielded qualities of Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish National Party and First Minister of Scotland. Last week he had to manage a furore created by the decision of his minister of justice to send home to Libya the supposedly dying man convicted of blowing up an aeroplane over Lockerbie 20 years ago. He did what anyone in his situation would have done, and announced that he would be putting a bill through his assembly to enable a referendum on Scottish independence.
This ever-lovable subject had been quiescent for the last year, following the collapse of the Scottish banking sector. It was not just that big employers were in trouble; it was that a potential source of earnings from home and abroad was crippled by almost incomprehensible debt. What now would be the economic powerhouse of an independent Scotland? The whisky manufacturers? The porage industry? The Loch Ness Monster? No wonder things went quiet.
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