Canny Alex

So Alex Salmond couldn't help but put the boot in.* He should know better. Cameron and Clegg have been restrained so far. Maybe they understand that Brown's error could so easily have happened to them too.

In fact, Salmond is a far cannier operator than either of them; so how to explain the Salmond attack? The SNP (19%) are down to third in the polls in Scotland, behind Labour (37%) and the Lib Dems (24%), just ahead of the Tories (16%). As the current government in Scotland, this is a disaster.

Of course, Thatcher is still deeply unpopular in Scotland, so any reference to a hated figure and the current PM is sensible from their point of view.

But there is something deeper here. Salmond is blaming his parties poor poll ratings on his exclusion from the leader debates. Canny though he is, he is not above becoming frustrated. And that is the real reason for him lashing out.


* - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/liveevent/
1306 "Gordon Brown didn't seem to have any trouble meeting Margaret Thatcher but he seems to have trouble meeting old age pensioners in Rochdale," SNP leader Alex Salmond tells the Scottish Parliament.