But it is not the complete picture. As far as I can discern Labour strategists do not know how they won. It is a nice problem to have. I would rather assess a victory than a defeat. There have been open displays of Nationalist backbiting on why they lost. The great Leader is taking some stick both for his relationship to Rupert Murdoch and for a more dangerous political feature – arrogance. Nationalists said in the run up to to the elections that the Salmond’s cosy relationship with Murdoch was not an issue. They know it is now. Read Private Eye and all the press except the Sun in Scotland.

But for Labour the real danger is complacency about Scotland. Winning Councils that they expected to lose will understandably lead to a feeling that the nationalist tide has turned. Witness too some dinosaurs bemoaning fair votes for local elections. Expect more of that. First past the post will rear its head again. The worst thing Labour could do is once again take Scotland for granted. The 2010 UK General Election shows most aspiring politicians of the left seek election to Westminster and not the Scottish Parliament. Until that changes Labour will not seriously challenge Salmond’s hold on Bute House. But with Ed Milliband’s leadership now safe Labour are increasingly confident about 2015. The coalition is under enormous pressure. Osborne lacks any new ideas on instigating growth in the economy.

So the temptation for Labour will be to sit tight, let the coalition implode and believe that they will soon be back in power. A Labour Party that looks electable across the UK is certainly bad news for Salmond. His strategy around the independence referendum was predicated on Cameron being the likely Prime Minister post 2015. Rid us of those horrible Tories would have been part of the message and a pretty compelling one at that. Now that lacks credibility. What Labour must do is to lead a positive campaign for Scotland as part of the UK. Do not wait for Salmond to launch the taxpayer funded independence campaign. Get out in front. Lead. Show that they care about the future of the nation. This is not the time to put the feet up. But on Scotland’s future I fear that is what will happen.

That is quite a trick to pull of. But it did not work everywhere. Taking Glasgow was the great SNP prize but Glasgow stayed Labour. The Nationalist bandwagon stalled despite the hype and spin. Labour did well because Ed Milliband has had some good weeks. He has pummelled the Tories and Cameron in particular over Murdoch and the UK Budget.  The Tory backbenchers stinging put down of the Prime Minister and the Chancellor as two posh boys who didn’t know the price of milk resonated. I’ve always argued that more Scots take their news on big television. Recent BBC, ITN and Sky bulletins have been terrible for the coalition. Ed Milliband performed and therefore unlike May 2011, Labour have done well.

Nick Clegg had one tremendous opportunity to get on the front political foot. Murdoch should have been a gift to the UK Liberal Democrats. Here in Scotland Willie Rennie hammered Salmond over tea and tunnocks in Bute House with the man responsible for a media empire whose modus operandi was illegal. Yet in London Clegg could and should have done the same to Cameron. Coalition or no coalition this was a gift. Vince Cable was stripped of his powers over broadcasting because of an unguarded remark. Jeremy Hunt is without doubt a cheerleader for all things Murdoch. Clegg should have demanded his dismissal or at the very least his suspension. That would have given local Lib Dem candidates something.

There are local factors in local elections. A third of sitting Lib Dem councillors across Scotland retired. Two thirds of those Lib Dems who did survive are in the constituencies of sitting Lib Dem MP’s so the foot soldiers and activists essential for Parliamentary elections are still in place. The Highland Council chamber will be graced by my great friend and former colleague at Holyrood Jamie Stone. Similarly Robert Brown makes a return to politics in local government in his home area of Rutherglen. Local councils will be the stronger for those two amongst many others. But this was a tough election for Liberal Democrats. The future is not to criticise Salmond and the nationalists but use their model. Be a government and an opposition at the same time.

Salmond has form here. The first was when comprehensively outmanoeuvred by Mike Moore over the independence referendum in January. Then he announced his position not to the Scottish Parliament but to the news cameras in the Bute House drawing room. Yesterday Jeremy Hunt the UK Cabinet Minister for Rupert Murdoch was dragged into the House of Commons to explain himself. Westminster showed an ability to make a Minister answer. Salmond’s lobbying for Murdoch is a serious issue. Salmond claimed to have published all the documents around his cosy relationship with Murdoch. The Leveson Inquiry published emails this week which showed Salmond had not published all his activities for Murdoch. No one would have known but for Leveson. That alone should have been enough to have him make a statement yesterday in the Scottish Parliament. But no. He decided to run away to London to make an independence speech which is after all a party political matter. So whether in Charlotte Square or in London Salmond is not in Holyrood. Either way the Scottish Parliament yesterday has not deemed a suitable place to hold the First Minister of Scotland to account for his cosy lobbying work for Rupert Murdoch.

Had it been so one question that is worth exploring is broadcasting in an independent Scotland or the devolution of such powers within the UK. This episode opens up the reality of the nationalist approach to broadcasting as the Murdoch-Salmond relationship deepens. Every week a SNP MSP attacks the BBC in Parliament. At a recent Committee session BBC Scotland executives were quizzed by Nationalists about their news editorial line. The general approach was why did the BBC not say what the Nationalists wanted. Former STV boss Blair Jenkins was commissioned by the Scottish Government to produce a blueprint for broadcasting. His report is thoughtful but gathers dust at a time of financial cuts as the recommendations need more money. But now that Scotland knows Salmond’s relationship with Murdoch there can be no doubt what the payback would be. BBC Scotland would be abolished in its current form because by definition there would be no Britain to have a BBC in. Television in Scotland could become part of the Murdoch empire. Parliament should be told.

More and more of us are shopping on-line. We depend on the 200 delivery companies across Scotland who have contracts with the on-line retailers. The experience is not perfect. People who work normal hours come home to find a postcard in the letter box. The parcel is either in Bathgate, the wheelie bin or at number 5. Consumer Focus are a independent body studying this issue. They want a better service for the consumer when people are on-line and about to make a purchasing decision. Government regulations cover distance selling and e commerce. These state that an on-line retailer must detail the delivery charge for every product before the consumer makes the final decision. There is a case for making these regulations go further  so that they clarify who the delivery company is. This matters because some are a lot better than others. Consumer Focus believe that most big retailers set up a national delivery contract with little awareness of what that means for the consumer. They are so right.

Many companies will not deliver to all of Scotland. If the postcode does not fit then large surcharges are levied. Friends who live north of Dingwall were quoted a surcharge which doubled the delivery cost despite being 30 miles from the Highland capital. A city with more Premier League football teams than Dundee or Aberdeen. For shoppers in the Northern Isles then some retailers treat these parts of the world as equivalent to sending parcels to New Zealand.

All of this is a great opportunity for Royal Mail. Their Parcelforce service is universal and pretty efficient. Why more on-line retailers do not use it for small packers and parcels is beyond me. Royal Mail’s latest figures suggest the letters business is falling by 6% but parcels are rinsing in volume by 5%. So they should be pitching hard for all this work as they need the income to offset huge losses. They have a distribution network, a great brand name and most local posties tend to deliver much of this anyway. The Royal Mail should become the premier delivery service for on-line shopping.

All this went through my mind as I walked around Edinburgh’s City Art Centre. The Centre is host to the annual Edinburgh Science Festival. My definition of a successful event full of things to do for kids is when parents are sitting on the helpfully provided chairs next to be exhibits texting. Or even speaking to each other but only after texting. Meanwhile the delighted offspring are up to their necks in blood, machines or wrapping mummies. Robot Wars has been a massive hit on TV. Lots of middle aged men get to relive their childhood desire to smash things while using their engineering and electronic skills to build robots that can manoeuvre and are indestructible. The Science Festival encourages sons and daughters to design, build and drive the robo cars instead of the fathers. The look of sheer pleasure and delight on the face of the 8 year old we saw as his construction proved adept at the obstacle course said everything.

On a different floor the blood bar was particularly popular as the  details of heart valves and pumps were explained in matter of fact detail complete with large quantities of highly realistic red liquid. A long discussion ensured on the way home about how much blood the body holds and how quickly it proceeds from head to toe.

The parental photo opportunity thankfully was not the analysis of Dad’s dance steps which are only to be seen in their natural environment. An audience of 30 something mums certainly is not that. Instead blowing bubbles with industrial quantities of fairy liquid had been taken to new heights. A frame held a circular bike tyre which was raised by pulley and ropes out of a water channel. By standing in the middle a wall of bubble ascended around the victim and collapsed under its own weight when well above the height of the average 12 year old. Photo cameras clicked and snapped as the translucent light caught odd reflections and facial contortions. Great fun for all.

And the point of all this? A recent study showed we are not producing enough science graduates for industry’s needs. Nor are enough pupils taking science subjects at schools so perhaps the  discipline needs the Horrible Histories treatment to take off.

Galloway will make fun of Milliband over Labour’s failure to back their words on attacking a cut in the top rate of tax by not voting against it. Similarly he absolutely does not believe in political parties actually working together. There is nothing liberal in his political make up so the coalition can expect the full bombast. I suspect the Tory side will lose no sleep by being attacked from the far left. He will back the Unite trade union in their dispute over fuel tanker driver hours as he can cause further misery for Labour. And the SNP should not sit back and smirk. Galloway will relish the opportunity to interfere on the constitution and it will not be on Mr Salmond’s side. His ready sound bite maybe just what the no campaign needs.

But predictable response to Galloway’s win came from Yvette Cooper on the BBCs Andrew Marr programme last weekend. She is Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary and tipped to be the next leader when Millband accepts the inevitable. Cooper did what all politicians do after losing. She declared that Labour would listen and learn. The Leader would visit the constituency and talk to the good people of Bradford. He would study their concerns and recognise why his Party was not seen as worth voting for.

Let me let you into a secret. They do not listen. Politicians of all parties take by- elections as a series of one-off opportunities. For the opposition they can give the Government of the day a bloody nose. By-elections in Scotland are a moment to bloody Labours nose. When Lindsay Roy held Glenrothes some years back, the SNP were so confident they had Salmond in a hotel just outside the town ready to make a triumphant entry with all the media primed. He crept away with tail between legs and all was quickly forgotten.  By-election victors tend to have a short Westminster shelf life. All parties accept that the Parliamentary seat invariably returns home at the subsequent General Election. If Galloway can buck that trend in 2015 it really will be something.

This celebration of achievement ended with a powerful film made by volunteers. The piece defined and addressed poverty. Not through the usual mind numbing array of statistics and graphs but through a quiet yet intensely powerful interweaving of a young man’s narrative with a poem read in local dialect. As the compere for the evening observed it is rare of the Lerwick Town Hall to be absolutely quiet but it was as 200 people watched eight minutes of moving testament to the raw emotional impact of having no money.

The scene was a bus stop in Lerwick. A youngster clad in hoodie and jeans sat hunched on a neighbouring wall smoking. People passed. Walking the dog. Hurrying home from late shift. Young people clad in not much congregated at the bus stop heading for the town’s bars and clubs. Night settled. The glow of the cigarette but was eventually extinguished. These images were underpinned by the young mans despair. His words came in short staccato sentences. They reflected his life with no money to spend on drink, drugs or girls. That no one looked or cared or wondered where he was. It was not self pity. It was a cry into an urban wilderness. The film then cut to an elderly women viewed through a rain soaked window gazing into the gloom of a winters day. Her words reflected a different side to poverty. One where a family is just too proud to take from the state benefits that are due. One where there is always someone worse off so why should she complain. One where despite the difficulties there is a view to contemplate out of a rain soaked window. All of this spoke to character and to soul. It worked for me.

As did time with the local branch of the Samaritans. In these times of economic recession with cuts to public services and long term unemployment particularly for the young I wondered if Samaritans workload was increasing? The evidence was invariable mixed. But what this incredibly dedicated group of volunteers need is more. And more men in particular. Is volunteering just for women? No of course not. Samaritans explained that their ability to help people is all the stronger when their trained teams are mixed. So go on. Volunteer if not for the full 200 hours.

Liam McArthur and I suggest that Orkney and Shetland should use the next two years to determine, argue and then negotiate with both Westminster and Holyrood the range of powers the Islands should have. For such impertinence our First Minister branded Scott and McArthur as troublemakers.  I must confess that will be on my next election address. The good people of the Islands do not send me to Holyrood to make up the numbers. They expect an Island representative to create, as my grandmother used to say, merry hell from time to time on their behalf.

The reality for the Islands is that 5 years of nationalist rule has meant more and more decision making sucked out of local hands and into the grubby paws of Edinburgh Ministers. Why given this track record, Orkney and Shetland would endorse such an approach to public policy is quite beyond me. Centralised control is the defining theme of Scottish nationalism in government. They control the executive, the legislature and through judicial appointments, some argue have undue influence over the law too. A national Police force puts another organ of the state in one mans hands. Devolution was not meant to end in Edinburgh. But it has. That is why Islanders want something better. But they are not alone 

Since the Northern Isles asserted their right to think through what they want rather than being treated as an after thought by central government I have received messages from across the country. Some have been less than complementary!

But other areas of Scotland are also thinking through what they want. That creates a grass roots challenge to a nationalist government who want a pan-Scotland approach to independence with no quarter given to regional or island cultures, economies or identities. Many Scots who have no political axe to grind will just refuse to be taken for granted by Team Salmond. People want to think about their areas and whether independence is right. But as the Nationalists are so coy about answering any question about what independence actually means, a level of distrust of central government propaganda is beginning to surface. That is especially so on oil. Yesterday’s Budget helped both decommissioning of oil rigs in the North Sea and new exploration west of Shetland. Orcadians and Shetlanders will continue to observe that they have a big oil and gas interest too.

Annie Lennox spoke in Holyrood this week. The Eurythmics and solo performer was the Parliament’s guest on Commonwealth Day. One of her great passions is Africa and tackling the spread of HIV AIDS. Annie Lennox, the rock star has sold 80 million records worldwide but Annie Lennox the campaigner this week sprinkled a liberal quantity of star dust over Holyrood by articulating her considerable knowledge of the reality of life for people in many Commonwealth African states.

In 2003 she performed in Nelson Mandela’s 46664 HIV campaign concert. Visiting Cape Town’s clinics, orphanages and hospitals in the townships that surround an iconic world city had a striking impact. But she has the inbuilt advantages of being a natural campaigner with a strong moral sense, worldwide reach and the clout of an internationally recognised singer. She observed that hearing Mandela describe African HIV AIDS as a genocide with women and children being the front line victims was a calling to action.

In 2007 Annie Lennox released an album featuring the song SING. 23 of the worlds most acclaimed female superstars drew attention to the spread of the HIV AIDS pandemic especially in South Africa where women and children were worst affected. SING still raises money and awareness on HIV AIDS helping to treatment literacy programmes at a local level. A parade of international organisations from the UN onwards now have Lennox as a campaigning voice in some ambassadorial capacity or other.

The Scottish Parliament then got in on the act as she was invited and accepted the role as Parliament’s Special Envoy. She is sponsored by the Scottish branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association whose varied work has included formal links with the Malawi Parliament. Malawians who serve as officers of their parliament have visited Edinburgh and worked with staff to learn about how Parliamentary Committees work and what they do. They explore the basic principles of Parliamentary accountability where government answers questions on how and why they are doing something. It is Holyrood’s best way of making a difference.

Holyrood is not responsible for foreign policy. MSP’s can and do care passionately about overseas aid in Commonwealth countries.  The UK’s International Development Secretary addressed a Holyrood meeting and answered questions on the UK aid budget funding India when that economy is growing 7% year on year? There are respectable arguments wither way on why that aid is paid. Annie Lennox represents Scotland’s Parliament at international events where she makes the case for greater levels of education spending, addressing child and female literacy needs and tackling the scourge of HIV AIDS. Her ability is far greater than that of most politicians to have people and governments listen and act. May governments both in the Commonwealth and outside act on her case.

Tavish Scott MSP and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association members with Annie Lennox in the Scottish Parliament. L to R: Margaret Mitchell MSP, Sandra White MSP, Annie Lennox, Patricia Ferguson MSP, Tavish Scott MSP

I enjoy the company of Alex Ferguson and Duncan McNeil. Duncan epitomises what