You have to hand it to Alex Salmond. The leader of the Scottish National party has spent a year as first minister doing nothing very much at all. He has done so with panache, ruthlessness and a trademark smile. Whoever said style counts for less than substance? Mr Salmond’s smugly self-confident politics have left his opponents in abject disarray.

The most significant decision the first minister has made since the SNP took office last summer has been to change the stationery. Devolution created the Scottish executive – a word chosen with exquisite care to emphasise subordination to the UK. By the simple expedient of ordering fresh notepaper, Mr Salmond has put himself at the head of the Scottish government – a description calculated to emphasise equality.