Salmond bunkered over golfing gaffe

Well, it is officially the silly season.

Alex Salmond has given an interview to Bunkered, the renowned golfing magazine, in which he says the real reason he took his cabinet on tour to Dornoch last week was because he had never played the Royal Dornoch golf course.

All said in jest with tongue firmly in cheek no doubt, but when newspaper pages are parched of stories, this was not the best of swings to take.

Labour have already used the clipping to remind voters of how Salmond took his dentist to dinner at the government's expense and demanded a car to travel 200 yards that the Queen walked.

Salmond's travelling circus of cabinet ministers was already under scrutinty because government funding was essentially paying to have senior SNP figures get a day of free publicity in marginal seats.

That allegation was dismissed by the government, and rightly so. The real reason the Scottish cabinet is doing the rounds this summer is so that the First Minister can keep his golf swing in shape.

Ahead of the Dornoch meeting Salmond explained the purpose of the summer tour thus:

"As a Government, we are committed to staying in touch with the people and the issues that matter to them. Taking the Cabinet out of Edinburgh to areas such as the Highlands provides us with a greater opportunity to meet many individuals and organisations from the local communities and listen to their views on a range of issues."

The "historic" gathering of the cabinet in Dornoch was the first of four cabinet meetings outside of Edinburgh over the summer.

Ministers will also gather in Stirling, Isle of Bute and Kilmarnock, all of which are close to golf courses.