SNP ministers are busy on many initiatives. Rural issues don’t get much media coverage even in Scotland, but those who live in fishing communities for example may be less influenced by the party leader on television than by what they read in industry journals. That could be crucial in the SNP’s key marginals.

So too with health. NHS staff are a large body of voters in every constituency who have been messed about by market fundamentalists, NewLabour gimmickry and multiple re-organisations.

If I were an SNP strategist, I would put the Health Minister to the fore, not AS. She has a direct no-nonsense manner and it’s obvious that she means what she says. There’s a novelty value in that which would help to get her message across.

If you work in an industry in which your problems have been ignored by the previous government, and another party aims to change things, has had some small success in doing so, and is at least listening to you and trying to help, then that might weigh more heavily in your decision whether to change your vote than an argument on TV about whether or not we should renew Trident.

But most of those personally affected in the UK seem to support Macaskill’s decision – the BBC just doesn’t give them the same amount of airtime as the US families.

I am not sure that those personally affected are of one mind on this issue either her or even in the USA.

I can imagine that some of those most affected may never forgive MacAskill and the SNP. But for the General Public who are not so emotionally involved the decision will be kept in perspective, particularly after the cancer has carried out the death sentence.

Regarding its impact on Gordon Brown, the slowness of his reponse may reenforce the impression of him as a ditherer who at length mulls over and calculates obessively his political position before making decisions.