Sketch: Tory’s stout approach no match for a fired-up First Minister

It WAS a former TA soldier who provided the ammunition at Holyrood yesterday for Alex Salmond to open fire on the plans that could see the end of Scotland’s famous regimental names.

But it was Ruth Davidson’s role as the leader of the Scottish Conservatives rather than her proud service as a weekend warrior that led to Salmond chucking a few thunder-flashes at the UK government’s defence plans. Davidson did not want to bring up the fate of the Black Watch and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders when she stood up at First Minister’s Questions. She wanted to highlight an anomaly she christened the “Guinness loophole”. She was concerned that the government had overlooked the possibility that UK residents with an Irish grandparent would be eligible for free tuition fees in Scotland. Never mind the Guinness loophole, it sounded more like the Jackie Charlton school of football management – find an Irish granny and you’re in. Salmond suggested she should be more worried about the “real calamities” of the Scottish “regimental traditions being traduced by the Conservative Party”.

Salmond had found a handy Tory on whom he could unleash his anger at the UK government. It was a tactic that served him well when Willie Rennie asked him why he had not followed the example of “progressive world leaders” like Barack Obama and David Cameron in support of same-sex marriage. Describing Cameron as a “progressive world leader” summed up the problems of the Lib Dems in Scotland, retorted Salmond to the hoots of his backbenchers.