Alex Salmond's claim that his administration can ignore votes of parliament that go against him has been flatly contradicted - by Mr Salmond and his entire cabinet.

Six years ago, while in opposition, they were among 31 Nationalist MSPs who put their names to a motion that demanded all votes of the Scottish Parliament should be respected by the Scottish Executive.

They were protesting, in March 2001, at the refusal of the Labour-LibDem executive to recognise a vote of parliament that would have increased compensation to fishermen losing money because of the catch limits imposed by Europe's Common Fisheries Policy.

That was one of few votes lost by the previous administration over eight years, and resulted from Labour MSPs leaving parliament early to attend their party's conference.

Four days later, almost all the SNP members signed up to a motion saying parliament "is the national representative body of the Scottish people, with responsibility to make decisions on behalf of the people on devolved matters, and therefore, in keeping with Scotland's democratic tradition, demands that the Scottish Executive implement all such decisions of the parliament".

By contrast, last Thursday Mr Salmond quoted former Labour First Minister Donald Dewar, saying not all votes of parliament need to be implemented by the executive.

This was backed up by Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson, with a ruling that laws and votes of no confidence or about tax-varying powers have to be adhered to by ministers, but they are not bound by other resolutions.

Yet Mr Fergusson, as part of the Tory group of MSPs in 2001, also backed the resolution demanding that the fisheries vote should be implemented.

The SNP administration, with 47 MSPs against 81 opposition votes, risks regular loss of votes, and Mr Salmond's statement on Thursday - referring to the majority of MSPs who oppose his plans to scrap Edinburgh's airport rail link and trams scheme - put down an important marker about the way minority government can work.

Margo MacDonald, the Independent Lothian MSP and a supporter of the rail schemes, said: "The will of parliament should be paramount. Parliament endures. This government can be voted down and another combination of parties can take over. Parliament must lay down the rules.

"This is about parliament and the rules by which we all must play."

An SNP spokesman countered that the 2001 fisheries vote was about a limited amount of money, whereas the ruling given last Thursday was about an open-ended commitment to infrastructure projects and to underline the importance of the executive budget being managed by ministers.

Meanwhile, Mr Salmond last night told a dinner of the Pakistan Welfare Trust he will do all he can as First Minister to bring more Asian-Scots into parliament and "in all parts of Scotland's national life".

The SNP leader, who described Bashir Ahmad, Scotland's first Asian MSP, as "a friend of mine for over a decade and an inspiration", told guests: "I've said many times before that the diversity the Asian communities bring to Scotland is a great strength."