Weak rivals let Alex Salmond stick to job

RONNIE REAGAN had it. Tony Blair had it. Now it seems that our very own First Minister Alex Salmond has it too.

The Teflon President was the moniker given to Reagan after the American public continued to love him despite some slips of the tongue and some policy difficulties. Teflon Tony was the nickname that Prime Minister Blair attracted after a whole series of embarrassing gaffes by cabinet ministers and advisors failed to dent his popularity. Both were re-elected convincingly.

Now, as we approach the first year of Alex Salmond's personal election triumph (and let's be honest, without the master stroke of putting his name on the list ballot the SNP would not now be in power), we can look back and say that despite some mud being thrown his way, nothing is sticking.

The Teflon First Minister is enjoying his time not doing very much whilst mischievously picking the occasional fight with Westminster that allows him to claim he is representing Scotland's best interests – not his party's.

In typically bullish mood, this week Salmond let it be known that he was looking to win twenty seats in the next Westminster elections, no later than 2010 but possibly next year, and so hopefully hold the balance of power between Labour and the Tories.

The important point at the moment is not whether this is a realistic ambition but that his opponents, and Labour in particular, fear it could be true. Even the dogs on Wishaw High Street know that Jack McConnell's departure to become High Commissioner next January has been put on hold to prevent a local by-election that could help create a sense of SNP momentum that might not be stopped.

When one looks back at it, though, one has to ask just how much was the Teflon coating due to the innate personality of past politicians – and how much of it was due to the unpopularity of their opponents?

Reagan defeated an exhausted and demoralised Jimmy Carter in 1980 with the slogan "The Time is Now". It resonated with the American public who desperately wanted to escape from the hellish soul-sapping seventies of economic stagflation and one foreign embarrassment after another. In 1984 Reagan was re-elected after easily defeating Walter Mondale – who only managed to carry his own state of Minnesota.

Tony Blair delivered the same performance. Ushering out John Major's Tories, this Thatcher in Labour trousers wreaked revenge on the conspirators such as Heseltine and Rifkind that had helped bring her down. In 2001 he easily dismissed the boyish William Hague, who should have waited four years before trying for the title, and then in 2005 he pulled off a third victory, something American Presidents aren't allowed to do.

Would Thatcher have been in power so long if she hadn't faced the tiring Jim Callaghan, the archaic socialist Michael Foot and the cocky Neil Kinnock? Labour, and the other parties should think hard about this. Is the reason that Alex Salmond is getting his own way so easily because he is up against the bookish Wendy Alexander, Auntie Annabel from the knitting bee and the anonymous Nicol Stephen?

How lasting Salmond's tartan Teflon is remains to be seen, but until he meets someone more abrasive he will remain too slippery for us to find out.

LOCAL Labour MP Nigel Griffiths must have had a strange childhood. His new private member's bill threatens to remove Tony the Tiger from Frosties packets and ban the use of other cartoon characters from foods deemed by some playground bully in a future government quango to be responsible for causing the rise in obesity. Kids find them irresistible, apparently.

But wait a minute; was Tony the Tiger not around in the 60s when I was a lad? In fact was our TV not punctuated with adverts for Frosties, Crispies, Co-Co Pops and all sorts by funny cartoon animals? Were we all obese in the sixties and seventies?

Don't swallow it
People such as Nigel Griffiths should waken up and smell their unfairtrade coffee. Blaming the marketing of popular foods is to ignore the decline in physical exercise and to absolve people from their own personal responsibilities. The logical extension would be to ban all advertising – for every product carries some risk.

Learning how to say no is one of the most important tasks parents must learn. The joyless, I know better than thee, approach of Griffiths and his nannies will not reduce children's waistlines one inch.

Tipping point
EDINBURGH's fly tipping is on the increase, by over thirty per cent in three years – but I don't see Nigel Griffiths blaming the TV manufacturers. I suppose we should be grateful that some of the offenders put their dead tellies next to those juggernaut wheelie bins and not in Brunstane Burn. While uplifting unwanted household items is free for the first collection, the city has introduced a £17.20 charge for any items after that – whilst only managing to fine one offender in the last year. Maybe Edinburgh council could reduce the fee (it's only £4 in the Borders) and increase the number of fines? Or is that too difficult an equation?