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I got a letter from Nicola Sturgeon yesterday. Now of course, it wasn’t a personal letter. It wasn’t addressed just to me. It was addressed to every single staff member of the NHS in Scotland. From cleaner to consultant, the letter thanked us for efforts, particularly over the last week or so.

Now this is hardly anything worthy of the BBC running a special news bulletin on, but I think it is extremely significant. It shows, in my opinion, the massive difference between the SNP in government and the Labour Party in government.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. The whole way the SNP has conducted itself in government has been a revelation. Scotland now has a government that is looking out for the interests of Scotland and not just some two bit organisation that answers cap in hand to their masters in London.

Many political commentators who were opposed to the SNP have been taken aback by how well the SNP have adapted to government. Even Iain McWhirter the Sunday Herald political columnist, who spent the run up to the election hoping for a Labour victory wrote, "Perhaps if Donald Dewar had entered government with the same imagination and panache as Salmond, the story of devolution might have been very different."

And Alex Salmond has the perception of how to address issues that Jack McConnell could only dream of. The way he handled the terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport was first class.

Now, of course, it is only early days in a new administration. The honeymoon period some might say. The SNP have announced a raft of initiatives which they are looking to pursue. And the public seem to like it. The SNP have pushed ahead in the latest opinion poll ratings.

However, they shouldn’t get too complacent. Announcing initiatives is the easy bit. It is the subsequent pursuit and delivery of these objectives which will prove a rocky road. How the SNP negotiate this road will hold the key to the next election and very possibly Scottish independence