A thought to begin the day..
It was written here just a few days ago.. that it would likely be some two years before Alex Salmond calls for a devolution referendum..
Today the Scottish Secretary in Westminster said the coalition government would not oppose such a vote. Indeed, the resolution of the issue would be welcome to the coalition of the Conservatives and the LibDems..
One wonders how much England would save, if there were no transfers of payment..
Now if Alex, being an economist himself, recognises that his first concern should be the issues facing Scots.. education.. the benefit system.. unemployment..
And, if he can demonstrate his majority government can deliver on these issues, he might at that point feel comfortable in presenting the question, while maintaining a functioning government. But this is a process that should take at least until the half way point of his mandate..
Two years is still a good bet..

The release of some home video's of Osama, sitting and watching himself preaching, would seem to indicate a frail, older man.. a shadow of the gun-toting bin Laden of old. In fact, profilers are appearing in reports from the States, indicating his body language, his demeanour, was confirmation of that assessment..
But it begs the question.. if so much information was gleaned from that fatal raid, why is this the only picture we have of Osama at home...?
Reports from his youngest wife, the one shot and wounded trying to protect bin Laden, seemed to state that the man had lived in a tiny village for two and a half years, before moving to the compound in which he was shot. The excerpts we've seen include her saying that he remained in one room for six years...
Now that may well be true,, but what's not said is deafening.
al Q'aida was still being run my bin Laden.. the issue of money problems within the group is questionable.. and if the man stayed incognito for all these years, one can be assured he was visited on a regular basis. Indeed, the mole who led the US to the man, was once of many who saw bin Laden daily..
It serves the US.. to portray the architect of 911 as a failing and, in the end, inconsequential man.. will please the public, and bolster the fulfilment of a sense of justice.