Analysis: Alex plays the blame game in his tale of two countries

THEY speak in braying tones, claim to know best and are crushing the hope of their people. Alex Salmond didn't mention David Cameron and George Osborne when he weighed into the UK coalition government yesterday, but we all knew he was talking about.

Mr Salmond has adopted a consensual style since winning the Scottish election three weeks ago. But his statement to the Scottish Parliament yesterday showed that this stops firmly at the Border when it comes to his fellow politicians.

As was briefed by his advisers, the speech was about setting out a "tale of two countries". On the one hand, there was Mr Salmond's new government pledging free universal services, free university education and a council tax freeze - what Mr Salmond described as his "social wage". South of the Border, even the politicians' accents are wrong. "The tolerance of the poor is being tested - budgets slashed, priorities changed, hope crushed in the braying tones of people who claim to know best," he noted.

With apologies to LP Hartley, Mr Salmond's message was effectively that Scotland is a foreign country; we do things differently here. He was conscious of the symbolism. Delivered at the parliament at the bottom of the Royal Mile, the First Minister noted how, 23 years ago, at the other end of the cobbled street, Margaret Thatcher had given her celebrated "Sermon on the Mound" to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

In it, she had attempted to explain her interpretation of Christianity.

In his Sermon in the Parliament, Mr Salmond declared it "sounded to this nation like finger nails being dragged across a blackboard". There was such a thing as society, he argued in response to the Iron Lady.

Mrs Thatcher's comment all those years ago was an attempt to explain that people couldn't always turn to society to explain their ills or provide a solution.

But, in politics, once a gaffe has been made, these points tend to get lost. Mr Salmond's point was clearer: with Mrs Thatcher's heirs now running the country, he would ensure Scotland would go another way.

This is an alluring message to sell to voters at a time of cutbacks and austerity. Mr Salmond is claiming Scotland's social democratic mantle as his own to argue, that it is the SNP, not Labour, which can protect people from "harsh" Tory-driven policy down south. The protection vs cuts message also reinforces the case that Scotland and England are different countries which come up with different priorities and solutions to their problems. That was what devolution was supposed to reflect, of course. But it is Mr Salmond's argument that these differences will inevitably lead to independence.

However, the problems with the statement were evident in some of the reaction to the speech.The Scottish Trade Union Congress responded by noting that Mr Salmond's "social wage" wouldn't stack up for public sector workers earning just over 21,000 - such as an entry level nurse - who now face a pay freeze for the next two years.

With strikes already being threatened, it promises to be a tricky task for ministers to retain peoples' trust in such tense times. But then, as SNP ministers claim, it may be the "braying" voices down south who end up getting the blame.