Anyone Got a Long Spoon?

And it's confirmed. In his keynote speech, which was delivered with all the elan of a nervous schoolboy with a full bladder addressing a group of cynical old hacks, Nicol Stephen offered to talk to Alex Salmond about a Local Income Tax. So the quiet overtures of the past couple of days are explained. What isn't explained is why we should trust this little shyster, who spent a large part of the rest of what we may generously call his speech slagging the First Minister off.
If we do sup with this little beauty, a long spoon will be essential equipment, as he won't hesitate to take the credit for himself and for his party; the fourth most popular in Scotland, and certainly the least trustworthy.
Possibly when Nicol gets his intellectual fangs sunk into the reality of just how dependent his bunch of irrelevants are, discussion might take place, but it will be on our terms, not those of a gnat with aspirations to be an ant.

Point of interest;
there aren't may Libbys there in Aviemore, are there?
The voices ring out in the hall, not muffled by a full audience seated before Nicol.
The camera shots are either of groups sitting close together, or long shots at low angles to make the place look more crowded.

Are they trying to hide something?
What else is new?