ABSTRACT
The early housekeeping rows over things like allowances should have been sorted out by the parties in advance. There is an understandable tendency to confuse parliament with Executive. Partly because the parliament is new, those who dislike some ministerial decision or other may castigate the entire democratic institution. There can be a tendency in political journalism to deal solely with the immediate: who is in, who is out, what will make for the next bulletin. Europe issues involve a compromise, indeed almost a contradiction in terms. Relations with Europe are reserved to Westminster, to the UK, but at the same time it’s recognized that the Scottish Executive has a role to play in the formulation of British policy and in European Council of Ministers talks. Scotland combines a relatively recent history of independent statehood with many of the continuing trappings of nationhood such as the church and the law.
