ONE hundred days of SNP government, and the biggest achievement is not down to Alex Salmond. It is not anything the SNP has done. It is what the electorate achieved, and by all accounts, they are pleased with their handiwork.

The difference is that a new political space has been opened up, filled with new possibilities. Nationalists want one of those to be independence, but that is only one choice in a new political environment where options are opened up rather than closed down.

Partly, this is down to the freshness of a new administration. A similar feeling existed in 1999. The creation of a new parliament opened up a sense of anticipation and expectation, which ministers soon found they were unable to meet. Partly, it is because the SNP travels with relatively light ideological baggage.

The Nationalists' presence in office, and their precarious hold on it, has unleashed new thinking about what can be achieved, with opposition parties waking up to the possibility of working together to drive an alternative agenda.

But look outside Holyrood and outside politics, and you hear voices of others who see the process of change as a time to engage, realising that the presence of a parliament is not an excuse to leave thinking and debating to 129 MSPs. Instead, it is an institution that provokes and stimulates broader thinking and contributions to a wider debate about ourselves and society.

Arts and culture are to the fore in this, and Edinburgh's festivals are a demonstration of what can happen when creativity is unleashed, geographical and cultural borders and boundaries are erased, and new thinking becomes possible.

To be in Edinburgh in August is to be in the capital of the arts world. While Jack McConnell's "best small country in the world" slogan is consigned to the cringe bin, it is no exaggeration to claim that Edinburgh boasts the world's greatest arts festival.

It is a fragile cultural eco-system that needs nurtured: too expensive one year, too much comedy another, while the weak dollar hits American visitor numbers. But despite regular warnings of imminent doom, it remains in robust health, both envied and copied around the globe.

Support of the festivals requires thought and support, and a willingness to support Edinburgh as a tourism honeypot and economic dynamo, instead of the previous Holyrood administration's attempt to avoid giving too much to the capital. A subsidy to the International Festival of £1.7m is barely serious if it is to retain its cutting edge.

It remains one of the most puzzling parts of the McConnell administration that it could not see that a significant boost to arts funding could deliver a big bang for a relatively few bucks. Instead, it will be remembered for setting out an admirable ambition of cultural entitlements for all, then failing to deliver them. Yes, it can take credit for the National Theatre of Scotland, but it also wasted energy on bureaucratic structures.

The arts are there for politicians to join in a celebration of national culture and life itself, yet the previous administration seemed cautious and unimaginative about even that. Perhaps it was because the arts and culture is where Scottish identity has its foundations, and that was seen as Nationalist territory best avoided. Perhaps it was just that former arts minister Patricia Ferguson was cautious.

The incoming SNP administration seems, so far, to understand the potential of boosting the culture spend. It celebrated the deserved success of the National Theatre's play Black Watch by staging it as part of the parliament's opening celebrations.

As culture minister, Linda Fabiani has been sent out to be enthusiastic, which is something she does rather well. She has found £2m to spend on promoting home-grown Scottish culture across the Edinburgh festivals, recognising this is a world-class showcase in the national capital. But that cannot be the only part of the Nationalist approach. It also needs to recognise that the festivals are a showcase for the world's cultures that broadens the horizons of Scottish and visiting audiences.

It is, for instance, through the festival building a domestic audience for world-class dance that Scottish Ballet has been challenged, successfully, to raise its standards.

Ms Fabiani has also acknowledged the importance of arts funding being carried out at arm's length from government. In interviews, she has sounded positive about reinstating that arm's length with the creation of the new Culture Scotland funding agency.

That arm's length has a purpose, all the more so when its political masters live so close by. And where it matters, above all, is in removing the risk of political interference from state-supported creativity and culture.

In all the new debates springing up with the new possibilities in and around Holyrood, there is a need for politicians to engage, to fund, but also to know when they should back off.