Living with The Bomb

There are times when one could almost feel sorry for Mr McConnell. The Chancellor has rather dropped him in it. Ian Bell in The Herald reprises yesterday's First Minister's Questions:

"The First Minister looked as uncomfortable as he has looked in many a month. He had been reduced, after all, to the worst vice of the newspaper leader writer: on the one hand – he actually said this – and on the other hand. He wanted to denounce Brown and the political cost of buying Downing Street. That wasn't affordable, not with Scottish elections looming, so Jack was forced to
swallow his principles.
Not a pretty sight. It must have been galling, equally, to have been forced to grant the nationalists another airing of the "London Labour versus Scottish Labour" ditty. But when a politician cannot afford to say what he truly believes, the game is over before it begins.
Was he for or against – I paraphrase – the imposition on Scotland of a fantastically expensive weapons system over which Scotland's parliament would have not a shred of control? Not saying. Was he for or against nuclear weapons? Yesterday, the First Minister didn't say lots.
Jack could only "agree absolutely" that people should have "an opinion". He could not risk an opinion of his own. He was naked in the debating chamber while attempting to straddle a fence. Did I mention that he looked uncomfortable?"

And it's only going to get worse...