Honeymoon seems far from over

Those working closely with Mr Salmond note how he relishes a good crisis, and the Grangemouth dispute has been such an opportunity to put himself and his administration in the public eye. This was one occasion when the non-political public were paying attention to politicians, and the threat of economic and transport disruption have so far been seen off competently and with a mature collaboration with Whitehall.

Competence has been the watchword of year one, and will probably go on that way - the idea being it builds confidence for Scots to take on more powers. It also contrasts with Labour's front bench, who struggled to command authority when in power and who, in opposition, have been outgunned by the SNP top team, a hyperactive media operation in permanent campaign mode and iron back-bencher discipline.

A year ago, only one seat ahead of Labour, it was hard to imagine so much going Alex Salmond's way. Ministers look back on three key moments that ensured they did: first, proving they could lose an expensive vote on building Edinburgh's trams and still remain in power; secondly, doing a deal with local authorities that bagged their council tax freeze and put the onus for delivering SNP policy on to councillors: and thirdly, getting a deal with the Tories to pass the Budget at Holyrood, without which the administration would surely have collapsed.

The report card for Mr Salmond gives him top marks for leadership style and guile, and injecting a healthy breeze of fresh air where the public realm had become stale. But after sailing close to the wind on the high-profile Trump and Aviemore planning applications, he opened the door to awkward questions. Key manifesto pledges sank, from student debt to lower class sizes, though without much damage. There is a need for more attention to detail in replacing council tax and public-private partnerships.

The bounce in the First Minister's step this week suggests he is not burdened by the things he could have done better. The report card one year into power - above all in political positioning - gives him plenty to smile about.

Economy and finance
No longer the Scottish Executive, the government replaced its predecessor's wide range of priorities and focused on raising economic growth to UK levels. So there was more clarity of purpose, though the statistics are less clear.

Scottish Enterprise was a focus for quango reform, and business - which has proved receptive to the new broom - was courted with a cut in smaller companies' rates bill. When business-friendly ministers hinted they might move Scottish Water to mutual status, it provoked a rare SNP back-bench rebellion and the idea was quickly killed off - showing back-bench instincts are to the left and signalling an area for future tensions.

The concordat with local government, forged by Cabinet Secretary John Swinney and not part of pre-election plans, transformed relations between the two tiers of government, won a year's council tax freeze, and cleverly passed on ministerial responsibility for delivering several goals.

Getting the Budget through Holyrood was a massive relief for ministers, but their spending priorities left pressures cooking slowly for the next three years. A shift to directing government at outcomes rather than targets could yet mean a significant change in the way the public sector operates.

Education
Manifesto promises for lower class sizes and the ditching of student debt have fallen far short, even though the graduate endowment was axed. There was trouble, too, from universities complaining about their budget allocations.

A task force with principals is the means by which Cabinet Secretary Fiona Hyslop hopes to keep them on board, though there are long-term challenges on sustainable funding.

Tough targets for cutting class sizes in lower primary and boosting nursery provision have been shifted to councils to make "year-on-year progress", allowing more local flexibility than the manifesto suggested. Several have little expectation of meeting targets.

Ms Hyslop wants exam changes and is pushing curricular reform, but faced criticism over the end to Schools of Ambition and training, gifting Labour the space to campaign for apprenticeships.

Whether the fault lies with the Education Secretary or manifesto writers, education was the weakest portfolio for delivering on promises, but the verdict on some items will not be clear until 2011's poll.

Health
The populist policies, keeping casualty wards open and free prescriptions, were delivered by Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon. Glasgow's Southern General has the fully funded go-ahead. But there are bigger issues around the future shape of the NHS, made less clear by keeping expensive things local. The big core budgets for health boards are rising less quickly than in England, stoking pressures while they are expected to halve the maximum waiting time to 18 weeks. It is hard to see how that adds up, and there is a risk of health board rebellion.

The pledge to introduce direct elections to health boards is being pushed, but with waning enthusiasm as downsides become clearer.

The wellbeing portfolio includes housing, which has seen another populist and nostalgic appeal with more council house building. But housing associations are unhappy about the way they are being treated, there is unfinished business in stock transfer, and the manifesto pledge of £2000 for first-time buyers looks doomed.

Justice
From Glasgow Airport terrorism to fuel shortages, some crises come and go, but prison overcrowding doesn't go away. Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has taken the issue head-on, admitting unpopular use of home detention has to be increased while trying to change the terms of the debate on crime and punishment. He brought in former First Minister Henry McLeish to find ways of making community disposals more palatable. His report will be a big challenge later this year.

The minister has also confronted the alcohol industry and retailers, pushing for them to pay the price of Scotland's booze culture and arguing for price rises.

He had a tough autumn trying to explain the government's failure to fund the recruitment of a promised 1000 extra police, only to be forced into reinstating much of the Budget under Tory pressure.

While the Lockerbie bomber provided a platform on which to mount a defence of Scots law's distinctiveness, a successful appeal by Abdelbaset al Magrahi could spark a crisis of confidence. Meanwhile, pressure on Whitehall to act against airguns has only generated constitutional heat.

Environment, rural and transport
The decision to block the giant Lewis wind-farm proposal was always going to be tricky, and despite initiatives to promote the science and the sector, it left the government's renewables credentials in need of repair.

Ministers are lowering ferry fares for the SNP's Hebridean constituents, though there is a difficult battle looming with the European Commission over subsidies to CalMac. While Brussels' rules forced the end of air route subsidies, green lobbyists question where the axe for bridge tolls and a new Forth crossing fit into the party's environment commitment.

Richard Lochhead, the Cabinet Secretary, claims to have shifted the Common Fisheries Policy last December, pleasing his fishermen supporters.

As Holyrood will hear in a Tory-led debate this morning, the price and politics of food is heating up fast. Mr Lochhead's national food strategy was aimed at boosting Scottish farming and improved nutrition, but may have to adapt to changing circumstances. His team faces the toughest and most complex legislative workload over the coming year, with climate change and marine bills adding to the delayed flooding bill.

The opposition: report cards

The flip side of Alex Salmond's dominance of Scottish politics over his first year in Bute House is his opponents' disarray. This time last year, he was preparing for coalition talks with the LibDems, but they walked away from that opportunity. His administration has since built shifting coalitions to win the important votes, and relied on the opposition's failure to get their act together.

Labour
Beaten in Scotland for the first time since 1959, Labour's frustration at getting so close to beating the SNP has delayed its coming to terms with defeat and its slim chance of regaining power soon.

The grieving process goes on, exacerbated by different approaches taken by Labour councillors, signing up to the SNP's agenda of freezing council tax and handing more autonomy to local authorities, while much of the Westminster party has blamed Holyrood colleagues for the defeat and resisted the push for a new approach to home rule. The rifts between these strands continue to run deep.

The move to "devolution-plus" powers for Holyrood has been led by Wendy Alexander, working with the LibDems and Tories. But her money problems, taking an illegal campaign donation from a Jersey businessman, mired her early months and continue to blunt her attacks on Alex Salmond for running a "special access government".

Her party wishes the SNP's honeymoon would end. Claims of "a big let-down" failed to resonate. Now its hopes are pinned on a backlash against tight budgets, broken manifesto pledges and weak plans for local income tax and capital financing.

The "renew, reform and reconnect" process grinds on slowly. Policy reviews are at their early stages. Labour's conference bought Alexander more time to prove herself. While her parliamentary performances stumble from week to week, the pressure is off as no-one else offers an alternative.

LibDems
Nicol Stephen led his party to its first electoral setback for nearly two decades. After eight years in government, LibDems have looked disoriented over the past year. It is not clear what the game plan was after the party's leader used the independence referendum as his get-out clause on entering coalition talks.

Being adrift and seeking a strategy to back into positive polling territory, the LibDems have faced some of the same problems and tactical errors suffered also by Labour - failing to get anything out of the Budget process, for instance - but benefited from Labour's problems getting more attention.

After last year's campaign looked inept and naive, Nicol Stephen's first priority was to secure his leadership position. He swiftly sewed up back-bench endorsements for the four-yearly election for Scottish leader, blocking any hopes his friend Tavish Scott might have harboured to mobilise against him.

Since then, Stephen's strongest suit has been in getting under Alex Salmond's skin. In parliamentary exchanges, Mr Stephen often delivers the most telling opposition blows, despite being third in the queue. Describing as "sleaze" Mr Salmond's role in the Donald Trump/Menie Estate planning application riled the First Minister, leading to a low point in relations and a pledge of SNP electoral revenge.

In common with the UK party, even with the injection of youth from Nick Clegg's leadership, poll ratings have slid backwards, remaining in the mid-teens in this week's YouGov sample.

Conservatives
The result of last year's election was yet another disappointment for Scottish Tories, but Annabel Goldie has used that platform to exploit parliamentary arithmetic.

The outcome was what Tories had hoped for, with a minority government needing to reach out to them, and Miss Goldie's team open to issue-by-issue deal-making. Front-bench newcomers, notably finance spokesman Derek Brownlee, have been to the fore.

The Budget was the big test, with Tory votes securing concessions on police numbers and business rate cuts while stepping in to fill the large gaps on SNP drugs policy. While freezing Labour and the LibDems out of the process, the strategy has made the Tories matter for the first time since 1997. Miss Goldie has added her embrace for constitutional change to align the Tories with national identity politics, but that has shown little sign of boosting the party's poll standing; David Cameron's surge in UK surveys has not lifted Scottish support.

Alex Fergusson, who left Tory ranks to become Presiding Officer, still struggles to get the measure of the noisy fractious parliamentary politics with minority government. And, while the Greens are depleted from the rainbow parliament after their 2003 breakthrough, Holyrood arithmetic gives them leverage, which they used to put Alex Salmond in power, help the Budget through and to keep SNP local income tax plans alive, with the longer-term game plan of environment concessions and their preferred option of funding councils with a land value tax.