Scotland has been well and truly trumped; shown up for what it can be at its parochial worst. Revealed as a petty little country that says it welcomes inward investment but then rejects it, simply because it doesn’t like the cut of someone’s jib. Donald Trump may not be everyone’s cup of tea. He may be a little crass and he may ride roughshod over some people, like the salty old fisherman Michael Forbes who refused to sell his family farm to trump and was then hailed by the media as a local hero for knocking the developer’s plan to build a $2 billion golf resort off kilter. But this is not a scene from some sepia-coloured film about quaint old Scotchland. this is not about poor old, socialist Scotland standing up to the mighty force of corporate America. this is about global credibility and it is about economic reality. Yes, it’s hard being genuinely Scottish and having to kowtow to some rich American dude that uses his Scottish ancestry to give him some credibility in a country that has grown used to being patronised, used and abused by those that made it elsewhere. But when politicians start to play political football with a proposal that could boost the economy in the north-east of Scotland then you need to stop and wonder what all the fighting is about. Donald Trump is not suggesting bulldozing the Menie estate. apart from anything, destroying the natural beauty of the place wouldn’t fit in with his plans to attract the discerning dollar-rich visitor to his planned resort. These tourists want to experience the rugged scenery of a country that Trump himself says he loves. of course, he wants to take financial advantage of the scheme and is that such a bad thing? Speculate to accumulate - that’s what trump has done all his life and perhaps we need to take a lesson from him and learn to take a risk. Aberdeenshire councillors may have taken a major, albeit retrospective, step towards restoring their own battered reputation by giving their belated blessing to the Trump multi-million-pound plan after tying themselves in a knot of planning regulation but how dare labour MSPs jeer and jibe from the opposition benches about ministerial protocol. It was their former leader that started the conversations with Trump in the first place. look at the websites and witness pictures of the former FM and Trump. Read glowing testimonials about Trump’s staff from Team McConnell and wonder why no one on the left was complaining in them days about conflicts, cover ups and compromise. Alex Salmond is the MSP that represents the constituency that Trump wants to invest in. So, no wonder he has an interest. 15,000 electors have bothered to sign an online petition on the planning application addressed to 10 downing Street – 75 per cent of people support the scheme and 25 per cent are against it, which probably fairly reflects public opinion in the north-east about the plan. Salmond would be a fool to ignore that kind of local opinion. So spare us the hints, nudges and innuendo about what he did with whom, and in what car. What is all the fuss about? could it be anything to do with the fact that the former Labour/Lib Dem coalition MSPs are completely rudderless and drifting from one FMQs to another, hoping to catch the new FM on the hop? They need to question what they are objecting to and wonder what things have come to when the Rev Ian Paisley, who has publicly welcomed the opportunity of the Trump proposal being transferred to Northern Ireland, is seen as the voice of reason.