Six leading Scottish politicians give their views on Robert Burns and nominate a favourite poem by Scotland's national poet in a series of readings that can be found on The Herald's website this week.

The business of politics, at Holyrood as at Westminster, is frequently divisive and confrontational, but an admiration for Burns and his work cuts right across political divides and allegiances.

Perhaps the most individualistic contribution comes from Green MSP Robin Harper, who accompanies himself on the guitar with a charmingly informal rendering of O My Luve's Like a Red, Red Rose.

Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, starts the week off with the comment: "Burns is my favourite Scot of all time." His nomination is perhaps not unpredictable - A Man's a Man, alternatively titled For a' That and a' That.

Sung at the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, it is, he says, simply "the best radical anthem of all time".

Annabel Goldie, Conservative leader at Holyrood, says that Burns's empathy with nature had a very real resonance for children growing up in the country (in her case Renfrewshire). Her choice falls on A Rosebud by My Early Walk, "a very beautifully constructed poem". A competing possibility was The Cotter's Saturday Night.

Linda Fabiani, Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Culture, chooses the early Song, composed in August and often known as Westlin Winds, which contrasts the beauties of nature with the brutality of man, and also brings in a love story.

The choice of former Labour Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson is the splendidly comic To a Louse, On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet at Church, complete with its famous moral about seeing ourselves as others see us.

Sir Menzies Campbell, until recently the LibDem leader at Westminster, opts for rollicking extracts from Tam o' Shanter.

The six politicians talk with eloquence and insight about Burns's enduring appeal. Their choices are this week's poems of the day.