Tartan Week's effectiveness is the real question

THE opposition parties have become somewhat exercised by a Tartan Week speech in the United States by education minister Mike Russell, in which he promoted the SNP's flagship policy of delivering independence for Scotland.

This is, of course, like complaining about dogs barking in the streets, or, indeed, seeing as he is in North America, about grizzlies doing what comes naturally in the woods.

Give any SNP politician a platform in a foreign country, whether they are on government business or not, and the talk will turn to the party's raison d'tre and those policies which will lead to the country's cessation from the rest of the United Kingdom. The fact is the SNP is in government, the independence referendum is therefore government policy and the more the opposition complain about it the more in plays into SNP hands, although one wonders why Mike Russell thinks it's a good use of his time to tell a bunch of American students his party backs independence.

Tartan Week should be good for Scotland, but rather than getting upset at politicians doing what politicians do, the opposition should be examining the effectiveness of the whole enterprise.

We'd all like to know how many members of the government, civil service and the seemingly fire-proof quangos all have important business in New York every April and what do we actually get for the 400,000 it costs, apart from pictures of people in kilts in Manhattan.