Should he have said that the Economist will “rue the day”?

Perhaps the most surprising feature of the Economist Skintland affair has been the unexpected second rate response by Alex Salmond.

Rather than using it as a peg start to deal with the issues raised the SNP leader got on his high horse and he warned that the magazine would rue the day for portraying Scotland in a poor light.

Yet he failed even to start to address what will be the big issue of the referendum campaign – whether the planned new independent country will be economically viable.

If he can’t convince Scottish voters of that then the outcome will be NO

Th Economist is not just an “English” magazine, as the SNP have tried to make out. It has a circulation of 1.5m in 200 countries is one of the most influential publications internationally.

If an independent Scotland wants to win and maintain international confidence it needs the Economist.

For years I’ve been a great admirer of Salmond’s. Today he went down a few notches.

@MikeSmithsonOGH