Scotland wins independence…

Apparently Number 10 now recognises that Scotland has a Government, rather than just an executive. At least for a short while this morning it did.

Simon Lewis was doing his first tentative Lobby briefing as the PM’s official spokesman – he has just taken over from Michael Ellam who left recently.

The session was dominated by the controversy over the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Al-Megrahi.

Lewis referred to the Scottish “Government” (it was all their decision to release a bad man) until halfway through when one hack pointed out that previously it had been taboo to refer to anything but the Scottish “executive”.

A Government, of course, has much more power than an executive.

Looking nervous Lewis said he thought he’d been told to use the word “Government” instead of “executive” and then asked his assistant, who laughed sheepishly and said she didn’t know which was the right term either.

To be fair to Lewis it was his first outing – no doubt it’ll be a sharp learning curve.