Chris Mackie: 10 years of laughter and fun in the Kenny and Jack Show

Sporting some carefully nurtured stubble, more at home on the chin of serial automotive snoozer George Michael, Jack McConnell kicked off a lively day of debate at the Law Society of Scotland's devolution debate on Friday.

Tieless, full of jokes and looking relieved that the Lockerbie decision hadn't fallen to his administration, Jack (famously pictured right as First Minister in Tartan week in America) regaled delegates on the successes (and failures) of devolution as he saw them. Among the clear positives, he contended, was the introduction of the smoking ban, something he revealed had caused him a degree of nervousness before it was enacted. Chided by a frosty reception at a licensing industry jolly weeks before the Bill was passed and fearful of widespread civil disobedience of the new measures, Jack had, he reported, barely slept during the night before its introduction.

Later, he outlined some areas for improvement of the arrangements. Among those was the need for a more mature dialogue between Holyrood and Westminster, and he expressed incredulity that the Megrahi decision hadn't been discussed at a high level between governments before deploying the old "if an alien had landed from the planet Zog, what would he have thought?" rhetoric to make his point.

Another contention was that the current system of 32 local authorities was unsustainable and should be scrutinised by an all party review body. Maddeningly, however, he failed to tell the audience a) precisely what he thought was wrong with the system, and b) how he believed it could be improved.

He also called for a radical change to the taxation powers of the Parliament, suggesting that responsibility for income tax gathering could be split between both Governments. And he lamented the lack of a serious policy shaping community in Scotland, revealing that, during his tenure as First Minister, only a handful of times had a policy report crossed his desk that sparked serious debate in the Government.

Later in the day, Sir Kenneth Calman (pictured left) cut a wry figure as he took to the lectern to offer a review of his Commission before taking questions from the floor. He insisted that the process of gathering evidence for his report had been "great fun" with the hard work punctuated by members of the commission circulating e-mail jokes around the group. If any curious reader wants a record of those gags, they may well be available via the submission of a creatively worded FOI request.

Speaking to The Scotsman after his appearance, Sir Kenneth revealed that he had managed to see his daughter's (http://www.susancalman.com/) recent stand up appearance at the Festival Fringe, and claimed to have helped her write some material. As for the remainder of her show, he was less enthusiastic: "She sometimes uses language," he said, "that is not for my ears."