Salmond takes centre stage

Not much detail about those arrested over the last few days in connection with the failed Glasgow Airport and London attacks – but Alex Salmond’s administration has been keen to say they’re not “born or raised here in Scotland”. More detail than he should have given, it turns out, but he’s keen to kill off the backlash which Mohammed Sarwar, the Muslim MP for Glasgow South, says has already started in a small way (abuse, graffiti, threats etc).

Salmond has always been very strong on race relations and what he calls “New Scots”, saying there are “many threads in the tartan of our society”. He’s evidently anxious to stop these threads unravelling. Keep your eye on Salmond. He is a formidable operator, with much power to upset Brown. He has already told us, for example, that there’s nothing in the investigation to suggest 90-day detention is needed which I imagine will be Brown’s next step.