A recent article in the New York Times praised the Scottish Parliament for getting off to a good start, but criticised the Scottish press for its crabbit, mean-spirited attitude to the Parliament.

Similarly, on my recent trip to the US, I found a good deal of interest and warmth towards our new Parliament. People were genuinely interested in the process of a new Parliament coming to an old nation like Scotland. They wanted to know how the Parliament was operating and how it would develop. They were equally interested and even excited by the SNP's vision of Scotland becoming an independent country once again.

I find this enthusiasm for our new Parliament abroad very encouraging. Scotland has stepped out of the shadow of the UK, and is beginning to emerge in its own right. I believe that most people in Scotland are proud of this development, and I'm certain that all Scots want the Parliament to work well and be a success.

I tend to agree with the New York Times that the Parliament started well. Of course, in any fledging institution there are going to be problems. The Parliament is a completely new body and inevitably we are all feeling our way to a certain extent. Not everything works perfectly from day one, and we shall clearly make adjustments to our procedures as we learn from experience. But I believe that any objective observer would recognise that the Parliament is working well, and already has had a profound effect on Scotland.

The Parliament has only been up and running properly for three months, but it has already become the real forum of political debate in Scotland. Westminster still retains very substantial powers over economic matters, taxation, social security, Europe, defence and other subjects. Yet despite these powers, from a Scottish perspective, Westminster is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Indeed in a recent survey in The Economist, only 8 per cent of Scots thought that Westminster would have much significance in 20 years' time. The rest thought that the Scottish and European parliaments would be the dynamic engines of democracy. It is to our own Parliament and to Europe that people in Scotland now look for the future. Such a perspective would have been inconceivable only a few years ago. Then, Westminster bestrode the UK like a giant colossus.

Europe was impinging on London powers, but the fury with which Westminster sovereignty was and still is defended perverted any sensible discussion on the EU and European developments. But this Westminster worldview finds little or no resonance in Scotland.

Those few, like the Scottish Tories, who wish to hang onto this London-centric vision are marginalised and out of touch with Scottish opinion. People in Scotland see their future and their children's future being with our own Parliament and with Europe. If the Scottish Tories don't take on board that simple reality in the near future, then they will have no future in Scotland.

So Scotland is stepping out of London's shadow. As we do so, we will undoubtedly look to the experience of other small nations in Europe to see what we can learn. After all, the majority of countries in the EU, and of those nations wishing to join, are nations of a similar size to Scotland.

We can, therefore, learn much that is valuable from countries such as Ireland, Denmark and the current EU President, Finland. We would not wish to follow them in every detail.

Scotland has distinctive ways and solutions of our own that we wish to hold fast to and develop. But we can learn, and I'm sure that these nations would be only too willing to work with Scotland.

Only last year, the New Labour Minister Gus (now Lord) MacDonald said that Dublin was a good place to go for a stag night, but he wouldn't go there for an economic policy. This sort of patronising nonsense, sadly all too typical of some British politicians, can have no place in the new Scotland. We can and should learn from Ireland and Irish successes. Ireland has played an active and positive role in Europe, much to this nation's benefit.

Scotland can learn from that - not from the negative and overbearing carping that has characterised too much of the British attitude to Europe. We can learn from Ireland's policies on corporation tax, bringing in new companies and industries with a competitive tax rate while increasing tax yield. Scotland must learn the positive lessons of other countries, and Scotland must work as a willing partner with other countries throughout Europe and beyond.

Scotland's new Parliament is up and running. It will be a success, because all of Scotland wants it to succeed, to be an institution of which we can all be proud. The Parliament is the start of a process, a process that will enable Scotland to return fully to the international stage, a nation once again, as the song says. That is a process which I believe is now unstoppable, and the day when Scotland will join Ireland as a full member of the family of nations is now nearer than many people realise.