The truth is self-evident: this is pastiche politics

SCOTLAND'S First Minister delivered a trio of set-piece speeches in America this week. They garnered precious little coverage over here. Our media was much more interested in Sir Tom Hunter's take on an independence referendum, John Swinney's latest spat with London over funding for his council tax freeze and local income tax plans and Donald Trump's latest claim that his Aberdeenshire golf development is all but assured because "they like what I've done . . . and my mother is Scottish".