Alex Salmond faced opposition demands for mandatory jail sentences for knife crime and was challenged to explain why his Justice Secretary visited North America while the Scottish Government hosted a knife crime summit.
Scotland's blade culture was in the spotlight of First Minister's Questions on Thursday, the same day Scottish Conservatives joined Labour in a call for the compulsory jail sentences for crimes involving knives.
Iain Gray opened the session by asking the First Minister why Kenny MacAskill was in Canada at the time of the January summit in Edinburgh. The Scottish Labour leader at Holyrood suggested Mr MacAskill was on a trip of "jollity and junketing".
This drew the retort from Alex Salmond: "I think if the Parliament should be ashamed of something, I think they should be be ashamed of an opposition leader who treats one of the most serious subjects in Scottish society in the way he does."
The First Minister accused Labour of favouring mandatory sentences in Scotland, where it was in opposition, but did not implement in England where it was in power.
Mr Gray told MSPs that 45% of homicides involved a blade. He also said 71% of convicted "knife thugs" did not go to prison, while 65% of those who did received terms of less than six months - "and the First Minister wants to set them free".
Mr Salmond, who supported the early release programme, defended the SNP's record on knife crime. He said 2,000 knives had been removed from Scotland's street since May 2007.
He said Communities Minister Fergus Ewing attended the summit as the representative for the SNP-led government. Mr Salmond called the MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber the "responsible minister".
Mr Salmond noted: "The leader of the opposition wasn't at the knife crime summit, and those who came together at the knife crime summit had an excellent discussion and analysis of how to tackle the scourge of knife crime in Scotland."
The First Minister also did not attend.
Annabel Goldie, the Parliament's Tory leader, told the First Minister that knife crime in Scotland was now at "epidemic proportions" adding it was "blighting every community in our country".
She told MSPs her party wanted a presumption of custody for anyone caught carrying or using a knife, with a minimum sentence of two years in prison. But she said there would be an exemption to that in the "most exceptional circumstances".
Ms Goldie called on Mr Salmond to back her party's recommendations and said: "We know the First Minister likes to talk tough but is he prepared to act tough, take action against these thugs and will he support the Scottish Conservative proposal."
She asked the First Minister: "Why are we stuck in the SNP soft-touch Scotland?"
Mr Salmond responded that the Conservative government had introduced the early release programme and vowed the SNP government would put it to an end.
Last updated: 14 May 2009, 18:28
The links provided allow you to bookmark this page into your favourite social media website. For users with JavaScript disabled copy and paste the URL from the address bar into your chosen social bookmarking site.