Journalistic licence.

Mr Smith is a big fan of journalistic licence and the powerful use of the English language, but even he is overwhelmed by the political imagery conjured up by two of the Scotsman's political reporters in today's edition of the paper.

Gerri Peev excels in the piece entitled "Skilful Salmond returns to Westminster as the political assassin" and goes on to comment "... he (Salmond) started the day with more compliments for his new friend Gordon Brown than a British naval officer returning from Iran with a goody bag." Mr Smith thinks that Gerri may have lost readers with the "naval officer ... goody bag" reference in an otherwise very insightful article.

Not to be outdone, Peter MacMahon, writes that "For McConnell, the night of the long knives may be around the corner." He tells us that "McConnell has spent much of this week in his beloved Arran, working on his golf handicap."

Of course, Mr MacMahon should know a great deal about the dog days of former Labour First Ministers having been the spin doctor and "right hand man" to former Labour First Minister Henry McLeish who was forced to resign from the role after presiding over "a muddle, not a fiddle" with his office expenses whilst a Westminster MP. Mr MacMahon then famously fell out with the brothers and sisters of the Peoples' Party by daring to write about the episode despite his former role as a civil servant.

MacMahon's piece is timely and insightful, if a little fawning in places, "... only Mr McConnell can say whether he is plotting his own future first or whether he is selflessly putting his party first.
Politicians being human beings, the truth is that probably all of these thoughts and calculations are going through his head."

But the Peev and MacMahon articles provide clear evidence of the differing respective fortunes of their subjects: Salmond's star in the ascendant, McConnell's star on the wane. Mr Smith is not sure how many more pieces like this Peev and MacMahon will have the opportunity to write.