As internet addicts know, there is an infallible rule called Godwin's Law.

This holds that in any online discussion some over-excited soul will end up accusing another over-excited soul of behaving like a Nazi.

Clearly, the resemblance between a bunch of ranting obsessives throwing insults around and a dignified parliament is slight. Heaven forbid. As Alex Salmond made clear, he had only used the word gauleiter in a very precise way when referring to a BBC chap.

The First Minister said: "The noun gauleiter is defined in the Chambers 21st Century Dictionary as an overbearing wielder of petty authority." He forgot to add, "under the Nazi regime".

For some reason, in any case, the Labour benches thought this was the funniest thing they had ever heard. Perhaps they found the contrast between Salmond's well-known modesty and petty bossiness amusing.

Ruth Davidson, commissar for the Scottish Tories on behalf of the caudillo David Cameron, had leapt to the BBC's defence. This is not the usual Tory approach. Then again, as a former employee she obviously wouldn't want to see jobs lost because her coalition friends have choked off the licence fee.

Keeping the BBC's right to decide who witters on about rugby free from "politics" is a matter of high importance. Salmond therefore asked if "we won't be treated to the sight" of the duce Cameron on TV during the Olympics. No answer came.

It was all too silly for words. One of the words was gauleiter. The point, at least for the First Minister, was this: Just because the BBC's "chief political adviser", Ric Bailey, has noticed "heightened tensions" among politicians up north, is editorial independence to be suspended?

Davidson wanted an apology; Salmond wanted to talk about London "diktats". The rest of us wanted to know whether MasterChef contestants will be asked the question: Are you or have you ever been a Scottish National Party member?

Labour's Johann Lamont had a good joke and some duff statistics. The joke was this: "The Chinese get an £800 million steel contract and we got two pandas." The duff part involved the First Minister's rebuttal: China will only get a fraction of the £790m to be spent on steel for the new Forth crossing.

It was a bridge too far. The gauleiters told me to say that.