Oh, such wickedness!
Distinguished visitors in the gallery today for questions to the first minister, parliamentary conveners all.
John O'Donoghue, Ceann Comhairle in Dail Eireann; Stephen Rodan, the speaker of the House of Keys in the Isle of Man; Inge Lonning, President of the Norwegian Lagting; Steve Peters, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario; and Michael Polley, Speaker of the House of Assembly of the Parliament of Tasmania.
They listened as Annabel Goldie suggested the first minister had a face like a haggis.
That is not, incidentally, to traduce Miss Goldie's contribution. It featured sustained, witty invective on the subject of the currency, skipping blithely from defending Scots pound notes to condemning the Euro.
And the haggis? Bella reckons that a Scots Euro note, if such a thing were to emerge, would feature either Mr Salmond's own visage - or the great chieftain o' the puddin' race.
Perhaps, she opined, folk wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
Oh, such wickedness! And was Alex Salmond crushed? What do you think?
Debate by insult
Plainly relishing the attack, he fought back personfully - reflecting on his own forthcoming appearance in The Broons before stating that he was far too discreet to suggest which cartoon character Miss Goldie resembled.
There must be room, on occasion, for a touch of flyting, the ancient Scots art of debate by insult. This was Grade A flyting - from both participants.
Actually, it was a rather good session of FMQs all round. Labour's Iain Gray pursued Mr Salmond on the topic of knife crime, in particular the issue of whether carrying a knife should attract a mandatory prison sentence.
Mr Salmond responded deftly, stressing the complexities involved in such an apparently simple request.
Tavish Scott, too, was on a strong topic, one he has made his own: the takeover of HBOS by Lloyds.
Today he suggested parliamentary inquiries into the implications and gained a degree of qualified support from Mr Salmond who noted, in passing, that Lloyds had also announced actions which might be said to assist Scotland.
Fine mimic
I suspect the watching Speakers, here for last night's Parliamentary Burns Supper, would have been impressed by the standard of disputation in the Land o' Cakes.
PS: Incidentally, all the best from me to Steve Rodan of the House of Keys. I remember him, roughly a thousand years ago, when he was a prominent Liberal in Scotland.
Indeed, he stood in Moray and Nairn, as I recall.
Again if I remember aright, he was a rather fine mimic. Isn't it intriguing how things come around?
I'm 
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