Congratulations to Scottish Tory contender Ruth Davidson for being the first to lose a staffer in the increasingly bitter race to be the next leader of the Scottish Tories. The long over-due punch-up is getting down and dirty, with the Sunday Herald turning over Davidson’s agent and campaign staffer for burning an EU flag and slagging off Catholics.

While the flag burning is hardly a vote loser in a Tory race, with Davidson’s supporters spinning the line that she’s “Dave’s choice”, it seems the lesbian newbie MSP is desperate to keep her Cameroon credentials intact – such rabid anti-European views are clearly unacceptable in the modern Conservative Party.  Given that the Scottish Tories lost one leadership hopeful – John Lamont – for dodgy papal digs, you would think Davidson would be more careful at a time when Scotland is searching its sectarian soul. Who would have thought someone who has only been in politics since May, and already running for leader, would not have done proper staff checks…

With a less than subtle re-branding going on, anyone would think blogging MP Tom Harris was in the running for a new job. Though having lost an early bet as the first MP to declare his support for David Miliband, Harris is hardly at the top of Ed’s promotion list. Hence why Guido doesn’t buy the line that the Glasgow MP is only in the running to be the leader of the Scottish Labour Party in order to “flush out the big beasts”…

With a thickening up of his dulcet Scottish tones and a return to the blogging world, it looks like Harris’s luke-warm declaration has piqued some interest where it matters – donors. The Scotsman reported over the weekend that Harris is in line for a “sizeable” donation from a yet to be named Scottish businessman. However it’s going to take more than just the new Saltire Twitter photo to pull this off…

Officially Scottish bus-king Sir Brian Souter got his knighthood for services to transport and the voluntary sector. Scotland is in a bit of a tiff though given it has emerged that it the SNP executive that put him up for the gong. It’s apparently just coincidence that Souter is the nationalist’s biggest donor.  Guido remembers the days when the SNP led the charge in Parliament against the Cash for Honours scandal. What was it that Alex Salmond said in 2007?

“There is hardly a single person in the Palace of Westminster who would not freely concede that throughout the London based parties, there has been a political culture which allowed a relationship between financial donations and nominations for honours.”

It seems that has spread north…

Never one to miss a trick in public, as well as working things below the radar, Alex Salmond certainly looked and sounded smug this morning. He has been quick out of the blocks to defend the Sunday Herald’s actions. On the Today program he said any “inglish” attempt to go after the paper would be “extremely foolish”. “It looks to me like English law and English injunctions are increasingly impractical in the modern world” He went on to mock the idea that English law “should pertain across the planet”.

Ryan Giggs should demand a refund after someone at Schillings, supposedly market leaders, forgot to file the papers in a Scottish court as well. The blunder has certainly done wonders for the SNP cause. The Sunday Herald, known for their close links to the party, have given the First Minister a gift this morning. The road to freedom is going to be one of small steps, and the English courts making Scotland seem like the badlands could certainly be considered one.  Guido can’t help but wonder, was there any communication between the paper and the First Minister’s people before that front page went to print?

Gushing tributes from both sides of the House have been pouring in for David Cairns who died last night of pancreatitis. The Scottish Labour MP for Inverclyde was just 44. Guido was going to wait a day or two, but he must be going soft in his old age, as Sky News, keen to adhere to their tag line, have jumped the gun:

“Big, big test for Ed Miliband in the Inverclyde by-election – David Cairns had a 14,000 majority.”

SNP gain?

It seems appropriate that Kirkcaldy, Jonah Brown’s home town, provided the SNP with their majority. Saorsa!

The local government campaigning experts the LibDems have lost every councillor in Manchester, control of Sheffield, and the decapitation of their council leaders across the north. They are 340 councillors down, with less than half of counts having declared. Labour are crowing abut gains in places they were already strong. Cleggy got a spanking and the first call for his resignation has come, yet the Tory vote seems to be holding.

North of the border the Sun will be claiming they won it, as Alex Salmond has come from behind in the polls to humiliate Miliband in his heartlands. With the SNP on course for a majority win, Scotland are an inch closer to having to work out how to fund their own bloated welfare state. If Miliband can’t win here, it’s bad news for him. Scottish Labour are in turmoil this morning and apparently raging at the simple assumption that the disillusioned LibDems would come flocking to Red Ed. Iain Gray, the Scottish leader, came within a hairs breadth of a scalping.

The AV result out at 9pm tonight is rumoured to be hammering for Yes.

Guido doesn’t normally delve in to second division politics unless there is a mad power-crazed coke-head on the run, but the Scottish Tories aren’t exactly having a good start to their election campaign. Not only have they had a million pounds of funding withdrawn, they have somehow managed to lose not one or two, but three candidates before their official launch this morning. Those that said their useless leader Annabel Goldie should have gone months ago are certainly having the last laugh.

Glasgow Councillor David Meikle seems to have kicked over the apple-cart, citing the Tories refusal to investigate allegations of vote rigging as the reason he is walking. The other two have left on slightly less noble terms. Last week Malcolm Macaskill, was sacked after past financial troubles emerged and Iain Whyte resigned his candidacy so he could carry on working for the NHS. Needless to say the much touted Cameron rejuvenation of the Tories in Scotland isn’t expected any time soon.

The LibDems aren’t having much luck either. Veteran Edinburgh MSP Mike Pringle has been caught with his hand in the till and Hugh O’Donnell MSP cowardly quit when he realised he was going to lose. And there’s still a month to go…

Scottish Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Justice, John Lamont MSP has released a statement:

“17 months after the release of the man convicted of Britain’s biggest mass murderer there are still too many unanswered questions. Despite Megrahi’s continued survival in Libya the SNP will not disclose all the medical evidence to back up the claim that he had 3 months or less to live.

“These latest revelations of alleged deals between Alex Salmond and the then Labour Government will shock many people. Releasing the Lockerbie Bomber was a bad decision, made badly, but any suggestions that the SNP was willing to use him as a pawn in their constitutional games is odious. Even to consider such a tawdry deal is an insult to the memory of those who died and to their families and friends.”

David Cameron reportedly told Hillary Clinton during a meeting at the Munich security conference this week that the release of the jailed Lockerbie bomber was a mistake.

According to Washington diplomatic sources a new British government report on the Scottish government’s release of al-Megrahi could be completed as early as next week. It could add to the pressure on MacAskill to go…

UPDATE : Kevin Pringle, Alex Salmond’s spin-doctor-in-chief, has been on to Guido to deny it all, claiming that it was Labour that wanted the deal. Guido has no doubt that Blair’s Downing Street wanted to get Al Megrahi released as part of the BP deal with Libya, it wasn’t known as “Blair Petroleum” for nothing. Nevertheless it is clear the canny Scots got their own deal in return…