Perhaps it was the presence of Willie Bain, smiling wanly in the public gallery, but today's Labour/SNP exchanges at first minister's questions seemed notably antagonistic.

Mr Bain, of course, is a living, grinning reminder that Labour thumped the SNP in the Glasgow North East by-election.

Today, like an invited Banquo, he hovered over the pre-lunch feast of oratory that is the weekly question session.

Labour's Holyrood leader Iain Gray has not perhaps been universally successful in upsetting First Minister Alex Salmond in these exchanges.

So he made the most of Banquo Bain.

Mr Salmond, apparently, was "losing it".

Losing touch with reality, losing the support of business and the unions - and, above all, losing it on the streets of Glasgow NE.

Dual mandate

At which point, he welcomed the bold Willie. Labour MSPs cheered. They yelled. They crowed.

Helen Eadie even waved, maternally, to the new MP.

Perhaps Mr Salmond was temporarily discomfited. Not sure he should have made a gag about Willie Bain seeking a "dual mandate" with his Holyrood visit.

A collective growl arose from the opposition benches: a bit like the racket when the orcs first appear, defiant and furious, in Lord of the Rings.

Said growl reminded us that the one with the dual mandate, pending the next Westminster election, is Alex Salmond MP MSP.

In fact, take that back. The FM definitely shouldn't have made a reference to dual mandates.

Still, Mr Salmond rallied splendidly. After batting economic stats back and forth with Mr Gray, he closed by addressing the "losing it" charge.

'Young and ambitious'

He suggested, deftly, that the problem for the Labour leader was a widespread public perception that "he never had it in the first place."

PS: En passant, Annabel Goldie referred obliquely to the vacant post of Scotland football manager.

Touchy subject for me as a lifelong Arab when United's Craig Levein is said to be the hot tip.

Craig, just say no. You're young and ambitious. Better to build your profile at Tannadice than jeopardise it at Hampden.

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It must be frustrating to the purist and the partisan but changes to Scotland's constitution have tended to come about via circuitous routes.

The final choice, of course, pursues a relatively simple path: the people accede, either at an election or a referendum or both.

However, the preparation is frequently complex, reflecting competing priorities and demands.

Think of the present devolved Parliament. Scotland said Yes - just - in 1979 to a different form of devolution.

That was thwarted by an unprecedented and unrepeated constraint upon the voters.

The Constitutional Convention then laboured lengthily in the absence of the SNP who had - understandably, given their long-term perspective - declined to support a process which was designed to preclude the option of independence.

But then the SNP decided to campaign alongside the devolution parties for a Yes/Yes vote at the referendum: a plebiscite which, itself, had been hugely controversial when announced but is now widely viewed as an essential precursor to securing the necessary Westminster legislation and embedding the new devolved parliament.

Same side

That route may have seemed faintly tortuous and, on occasion, without end.

But it was arguably the only way by which parties espousing completely different views of Scotland's constitutional future could end up on the same side in a referendum.

The Scottish people liked what they saw and assented, overwhelmingly.

Now, 10 years on, we have similarly tortuous politics ahead. We have a Queen's Speech which promises to "take forward proposals in the final report of the Commission on Scottish devolution".

That is the Calman Commission.

However, "taking forward" does not mean enacting - at least not this side of the next UK General Election, expected in May.

It means publishing a white paper. Action on Calman may fall to Labour or to the Tories (also Calman members) or to a hung Parliament to consider further.

Referendum test

At Holyrood, we are shortly to have a white paper from the Scottish government on how an independent Scotland might shape up.

But opposition from rival parties - who say the recessionary time is not ripe - means that these proposals are highly unlikely to be put to the test in a referendum, at least before the next Scottish Parliament elections in 2011.

Frustration, then? Stasis? Deadlock? Not necessarily.

Once these white papers are published, Scots will have before them - with, one hopes, some degree of clarity - alternative visions of how their country might proceed in the field of self-governance.

There can then follow debate, discussion and, eventually, decision.

Remember, devolution resembles evolution. Just takes longer.

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It is a small, but thoroughly worthwhile, step for a man. Giant leaps may take a little longer to arrange.

I am talking, admittedly somewhat obliquely, of Alex Salmond's visit to Euro Finance week in Frankfurt.
There he will meet the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, plus other eminent financiers and politicians.

His visit, of course, comes in the aftermath of the tribulations visited upon Scotland's banks and financial sector.

I was particularly struck by the warning given to Holyrood by Jeremy Peat.

Mr Peat, formerly a senior economist with RBS, told Parliament's economy committee that he feared the "centre of gravity" in banking and finance would shift from Edinburgh to London.

Severe setbacks

A wise warning. We are social animals. We, mostly, perform best when we experience the counsel and the competition of those engaged in broadly the same activity.

Plus, of course, there are pragmatic matters such as the availability of diverse skills in a cluster. Reduce the cluster and you thin the skills.

Mr Salmond, of course, knows that only too well. He has also argued, repeatedly, that we should be wary of talking down the entire Scottish financial sector on the basis of admittedly severe setbacks in large-scale banking.

Let us remember, too, that other parts of the world have suffered substantially in the financial crisis.

We are not alone, not uniquely damaged. Collectively, let us strive to repair such damage as has been done.

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