David Maddox: Open Union

After the fuss about Andy Murray wrapping himself in the Union Flag at Wimbledon, it was interesting to see English golfer Ian Poulter go a step further as the Open started at Turnberry today.

His Union Flag top and specially commissioned red, white and blue "Poulter tartan" troosers certainly made a statement in the Borders.

No doubt the local Conservative and Unionist MSP - Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson - would have thoroughly approved of the sentiment, while First Minister Alex Salmond who visited the course the day before would not have found it to his Scottish Nationalist tastes.

But it was interesting that when a Scot wraps himself in the Union Flag in England it sparks far more debate and discussion than when an Englishman does the same in Scotland.

Murray's statement provoked political debate and questions over whether he had been got at by the marketing men to help turn Henman Hill into Murray Mound.

Poulter's just led to the usual raised eyebrows about the now expected flamboyant dress sense of a man inspired by his mother, a former shop manager at Dorothy Perkins.

David Maddox: And the prize for the fastest Andy Murray press release....

....goes to the Tories who managed to get their words of commiseration out less than five minutes after Murray's 3:1 defeat to Andy Roddick.

Murray's "an inspiration" Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie said.

Labour's arrived a whole seven minutes later.

"Murray's done us proud," said Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray, who' s known some defeats in his time.

The Scottish Government one took another 21 minutes.

"Andy has made Scotland proud," said First Minister Alex Salmond

Still waiting for the SNP party and Lib Dem ones, but more to follow no doubt.

However, the prize for the silliest political argument of the day and probably the year is over the alleged claims by Mr Salmond that he could have won Wimbledon if he had trained a bit harder.

"This is the time that you get out there and say, 'if only'. If I'd worked as hard as Andy Murray then who knows, but I may take the odd swing and certainly if Andy wins there'll be a few balls going in the air," he told a well known state funded broadcaster ahead of the semi-final.

This may come as a surprise to those who think his current athletic physique is more suited to a specialist form of wrestling in Japan.

But, true to form, Labour put out a press release attacking the First Minister in the name of former sports minister Frank McAveety.

"Alex Salmond's ego knows no bounds," said Mr McAveety, who apparently had to pick himself up off the floor for laughing. "If he is not going round America comparing himself to Thomas Jefferson he is claiming that, with more practice, he could have been Wimbledon champion. The First Minister is fast becoming the Walter Mitty of Scottish politics."

The SNP think the joke is on Labour for failing to understand that the First Minister's quotes were a light hearted joke.

A spokesman for the First Minister suggested that Frank McAveety "should get a life."

David Maddox: The Numbers Game (18) - serving up a bit of Nationalism

Another Yougov poll is out tomorrow (Thursday 25 June) with results from an interesting and quite topical question.

Along with the usual "how much do you hate Gordon Brown ?" will be a question on Andy Murray.

It asks the polled to say how they feel about the World number 3's description of himself as "Scottish and British."

Now clearly there may be some who think the marketing men have got at Britain's best hope of winning Wimbledon since Fred Perry cleared off to America after being told to take his balls elsewhere by the snobs who ran tennis. Appealing to all of Britain brings in a lot more money than just Scotland and it was noticeable that in his early days Mr Murray was less inclined to be seen as British and quite keen to promote his Scottish identity (as the picture top right illustrates).

But the question is interesting given the hullabaloo surrounding Scotland poor old mercurial cyclist Chris Hoy and his emotional tears (as pictured left) in Beijing as the Union Flag was pulled up in his honour during one of his three gold medal awards.
There was clear resentment among Nationalists that any Scottish sportsman may wish to call himself British and equal desperation among unionists that he became a symbol of their cause.

So for whatever reason Andy Murray has found himself in a much bigger match than the ones he will find on Centre Court over the next week or two.