Leader: Unseemly outburst, taken as compliment

THE Scotsman has upset the First Minister. Rather badly, it seems. In the course of an interview with Holyrood magazine in which he launched an unseemly and intemperate attack on Scottish Supreme Court judge Lord Hope, Alex Salmond took a swipe at this newspaper.

It would be an understatement to say he was not best pleased that we questioned whether his assertions on the role of the court in the Nat Fraser case had any basis in fact. He may also have taken umbrage at our reference to Humpty Dumpty.

To recap, Humpty tells Alice that words mean what he chooses them to mean. That was our central critique of the First Minister: he made statements that he asserted were facts but were not - for example, that all criminal appeals were always heard in Scotland.

Mr Salmond is not the first politician to criticise this paper and nor, we hope, will he be the last. But his remarks reinforce our view, expressed before the election, that while he was the best choice for First Minister, unrestrained power would not be good for him, or Scotland.

We take his attack as a compliment and as a small gesture of thanks we offer some sincere advice: do calm down, dear leader; public temper tantrums are so unstatesmanlike.