Eddie Barnes - They're now Nicola's games

Steven Purcell now having departed the scene, who is now going to be the public face of Glasgow's Commonwealth games? Step forward Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

The Health Secretary pops up in the papers this morning at the promo shot for the Games' new logo (it consists of some circles and a letter 'G', and cost £95,000. Well done!) Why, you might well ask, did the Health Secretary feel it necessary to attend a photo call for a sporting event? Have you see her English counterpart Andy Burnham on the running track at London's Olympic stadium, likewise trying to associate himself with the UK's 2012 fun and games?

No. But then Andy Burnham isn't an MP for the city in which the Olympics is taking place. And nor is Mr Burnham planning on running the country when the games take place. The ambitious Miss Sturgeon, however, has an eye on lots of things. Mr Purcell had, up until last week, ensured that the Games were his own personal baby, warning that there was no way he was going to allow the SNP Government to take the credit for his show. But with Mr Purcell out of the road, and Alex Salmond clearly not all that interested in all that flinging of sticks and running about, Miss Sturgeon has wasted no time in jumping in.

Watch out for expensively produced circles and the letter 'G' on Miss Sturgeon's lapel next time she is seen in public.

Hamish Macdonell - How the mighty are fallen

GORDON Jackson QC, one of Scotland's best-paid, most well-known and feared advocates returned to the Scottish Parliament today as a visitor.
Mr Jackson was, of course, a Labour MSP for eight years, before being beaten in Glasgow Govan by Nicola Sturgeon in 2007.
He used to stride around the parliament like it was his personal chambers - not any more.
Jackson took his visitors' pass and sat in the press gallery, before being reprimanded, severely, by a security guard and warned he was not allowed to be there as he was not a member of the press.
After pleading for mercy, Jackson was allowed to remain, but only if he made sure the pass with a big 'v' on it was visible to all, including all his former fellow colleagues down below.
ends