Third Time Round

Most of the novelty and interest that might have been produced by the opening of the third Scottish Parliament was drained off by the ham-handed attempts by fledgling terrorists to blow up Glasgow Airport (media, passim). The First Minister emerging from the polls (just) like Aphrodite from the waves had some curiosity value for connoisseurs of such spectacles. The Queen however has seen it all. She presided over the opening, as stony faced as ever, regardless of what passed or was paraded before her. Quite a lot was. It ranged from three references, (two oblique, one direct) to independence by Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party and considered by his enemies as Lord of the Ascendant, Cock of the Walk and Chieftain of the Pudding Race, to what surely was an overnight sweep of the east coast's more fanciful creations. They ranged from stiltwalkers and jugglers to a group of elderly people dressed like Robin Hood, even carrying bows and arrows, to a set of pipers distinguished from their peer pipers only by dancing before the Queen like David before the ark. The Leaping Salmond waved, the Queen sat stolidly an an almost reverie, probably wondering when the quails' eggs would be served up. After what seemed an eternity, it was all over, geared and running for the business of government. First reports suggest that the Labour Party is displeased by the Leaping Salmond's independence references and that he will be pulled up for them when the windy exchanges we call parliamentary debate in Scotland start up.