Newsweek Scotland: Friendships, dictators, oil and the Union

There must be an irony in the loss of the Defence Secretary in the same week as the death of Muammar Gaddafi, the man he set out to topple. You have to think it's ironic too that Abdel Basset al Megrahi has, it seems, outlived the Colonel. Such is the serendipity of life and we'll touch on all this with Professor David Anderson and Trevor Royle and ask if the Libyan incursion is another step in what became the Tony Blair doctrine on humanitarian intervention.

At least the Coalition can claim UN backing for a joint NATO operation without boots on the ground - or at least a few that were very light on their feet - AND a successful operation. Meanwhile how is the rest of the Arab spring going along? Tunisia has its first free elections this weekend.

We're also chasing the idea that Liam Fox might be on to something by having his friend and personal adviser close to hand. Put the lack of security clearance and dubious funding to one side and ask if it is so unreasonable to have someone you trust personally - as opposed to professionally, as in the Civil Service - working beside you in what can be a lonely place in politics. Doesn't that help keep you grounded and in the real world rather than the rarefied remoteness of government? Other countries don't seem to have our reservations.

There won't be many reservations about the SNP conference in Inverness, where pretty much everything of importance seems to be going their way. Even the Westminster government handed them a bonus by announcing the closure of the carbon capture project at Longannet on the eve of conference! Then they complain the Nats are always expressing grievance... Alex Salmond couldn't have orchestrated it better what with the BP investment in oil fields west of Shetland promising oil until at least 2050.

We'll discuss politics and ask if devo max which seems to appeal to the majority in Scotland so far, would go down well in England. If the Scots stay in the Union, our cousins in the south are entitled to their tuppence worth and might say: Hang on, Scotland gets all it wants AND the benefits of Union.

All this and Angus Macleod with the papers. Join me tomorrow at 8.