Big business support good for SNP prospects?

It seems unlikely that any of the major parties would turn their nose up at cash or an endorsement from businessmen like Brian Souter or David Murray - 'the corrosive effect of the super rich' or 'among Scotland's most successful entrepreneurs', depending whether they're on your side or not - so it's a bit rich of Labour to complain about these people bankrolling the SNP's election campaign and endorsing Alex Salmond respectively.

On the other hand, will an association with big business and the wealthy be good for the SNP's chances in May's election, or could this in fact be detrimental to the party's chances?

After all, the dominant Nationalist commentariat never seems to cease telling us that Scotland is a progressive, egalitarian and collectivist sort of nation, thus tolerant and inclusive towards gays, for example, and we're all Jock Tamson's bairns, sort of thing.

Thus hugely successful businessmen hardly seem consistent with this ethos, and Murray and Souter are both conservatives, the former with a big 'C' and the latter with a small one. On the other hand, perhaps the thinking among politicians is that being associated with success can never be a bad thing, irrespective of precisely what that success consists of and whose success it is. After all, the uneasy relationship between the need for wealth creation and its fair distribution was perhaps neatly encapsulated in Alex Salmond's infamous claim that we the Scottish people "didn't mind" the economics of Thatcherism, but didn't like the social side of her philosophy.

Perhaps the view is to some extent that support from people such as Murray and Souter represents a poisoned chalice, but on the other hand it's best to make the most of the situation. After all, it would surely be considered churlish to reject Mr Murray's endorsement, while Mr Souter's half million pounds gift horse shouldn't be looked at in the mouth.

Of course, the generally gushing Nationalist welcome for Brian Souter's largesse - as opposed to the man himself - perhaps demonstrates the superficiality of the whole thing, since what is being welcomed is little more than a marketing budget to be used to sell the SNP brand rather than to encourage an election campaign discourse of grand ideology and penetrating analysis.

And of course the quasi-celebrity endorsement culture is all part of the marketing ethos, but whether this could represent the SNP's political equivalent of a Consignia remains to be seen.

It's surely the case, for example, that a Donald Trump endorsement wouldn't do Salmond & Co any favours, but perhaps the jury will forever remain out on the effect of slightly less rapacious businessmen like Brian Souter.