Salmond with your meal? PM wants a second 'dinner summit'

Published on Saturday 18 July 2009 19:46

IT WAS the dinner party that nobody thought would ever happen, such is their political enmity – Gordon Brown and Alex Salmond sitting down to break bread, in the company of Scotland's other political leaders.

But the "dinner party summit" could be about to be reconvened in a bid to ease cross-border bickering between the Labour and the SNP. Jim Murphy, the Scottish Secretary, has told MPs that he had suggested to the Prime Minister that another gathering be held to unite the parties to help Scotland out of the recession.

Earlier this month, the cross-party consensus on fighting the threat of 900 job losses at Diageo's Johnnie Walker whisky factories was almost derailed amid suspicions of Scotland Office "dirty tricks", after Salmond was revealed to have been unable to meet Diageo chief executive Paul Walsh because he had committed to appear on a TV chat show.

The first dinner party was held in April at the Prime Minister's home in North Queensferry, on the eve of the first meeting of the UK cabinet in Scotland in 90 years. Salmond had been denied the chance to attend Cabinet, with the dinner suggested as a compromise.

The guests, including Murphy, the Holyrood party leaders and the bosses of CBI Scotland and STUC, dined on smoked salmon, lamb, lemon tart and Scots cheeses. But the most memorable part of the event was Green MSP Patrick Harvie filing regular "tweets", from under the table, to his Twitter webpage.

Murphy, giving evidence to the Scottish Affairs committee at Westminster, was asked why there was a "startlingly small" number of meetings between the Prime Minister and First Minister. He replied: "I have spoken to the Prime Minister again about this (and he] is minded to invite the party leaders in Scotland again to have this conversation about what we can do together to get Scotland through the recession."

Murphy said there was a good working relationship between civil servants, but that there was a need for the relationship between ministers to be "more than window dressing". "The practical relationships are good but could be better. The political relationships fluctuate sometimes, based on the search for a headline."

A snapshot survey by Scotland on Sunday showed a willingness for another dinner party from Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott and CBI Scotland director Iain McMillan. A spokesman for Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie said: "Dinner parties are all fine and well, but ... will not sort out building a day-to-day relationship between our two governments based on mutual respect."

Harvie said he would continue to Tweet – but only if fellow guests gave permission.