Salmond's skewed priorities

Published on Wednesday 8 July 2009 20:35

THE energetic Scottish Secretary, Jim Murphy, has been making the running in the battle to stop Diageo laying off workers at its plants in Kilmarnock and Glasgow. He brokered a meeting with Diageo boss Paul Walsh, and claims Mr Walsh will consider any fresh proposals from Scottish Enterprise that could head off the closures. But where was Scotland's First Minister when this was happening?

It appears that, at the last minute, Mr Salmond missed a face-to-face meeting with Paul Walsh in order to do a television interview about Afghanistan.

The First Minister's aides say the meeting with Mr Walsh was not confirmed until it was too late to rearrange the television slot. But Alex Salmond did not get where he is without being politically adroit. Missing his date with Diageo was an error. For who could blame Mr Walsh for thinking that if Mr Salmond prefers talking about Afghanistan to talking about East Ayrshire, then Scotland's politicians are merely going through the motions when they criticise Diageo's proposed job cuts.

It is true that the First Minister has his own long-term agenda. He wants the Scottish Government and parliament to be seen as more than a big county council. And given the mounting British casualty list in Afghanistan, Mr Salmond has every right to raise it as an issue. But timing is everything in politics and on this occasion the First Minister got his priorities wrong.