So, the argument seems to be that the democratically elected First Minister of Scotland shouldn’t be in Denmark promoting trade because the bins in (Labour controlled) Edinburgh are a bit full.

I love Scotland, and aye, bins not being emptied is a problem. But seriously, this kind of patter makes us sound like total small-minded intellectual pessimists.

Frankly, if the leader of my country was talking about rubbish collection when there was business to be done in Copenhagen, I’d be asking what the hell she was playing at. There’s a strong element of “wha does she think she is?” around all this. Is there a Danish equivalent of “I kent her faither”, that most damning of Scottish put-downs? I hae ma doots.

What seems to annoy people is that she actually looks and acts like the able leader of the confident self-determining country that Scotland will shortly become.

If there’s one phrase that gars me greet, it’s “get on with the day job”. Promoting Scotland is the day job, and in the absence of the elected head of state that other countries (like Ireland) enjoy, it falls on the First Minister to do it. And she seems to be doing it quite well. And, let’s be honest, the hypocrisy is off the charts – all the folk giving her grief would be first on the plane if only their chronic lack of talent wasn’t preventing them from getting within a million miles of getting the gig.

Let the capital’s councillors sort out the bruck.

And let Scotland be Scotland.

Tak, gode mennesker!