It's time to hit the road again, Jack

PICK of the week

JACK McCONNELL

A FEW dozen votes the other way last May and Jack McConnell could have still been in power. Strange how we seem to have forgotten what a knife-edge affair the Holyrood election was, although, don't worry, you'll be reminded often enough when the anniversary comes around in a couple of weeks. As Alex Salmond turns the First Minister's job into a presidential-style gig and carries it all off pretty well, to be fair, Jack plans his new venture as high commissioner in Malawi.

He is due to take up the post next year, but I still can't help wondering if the job is causing ructions over the bedtime cocoa in the McConnell household. As head of culture and sport in Glasgow, Bridget – Kirsty Wark's favourite piano player – is unlikely to want to miss the run-up to the Commonwealth Games, the biggest event in the city's recent history. It seems to me that she wouldn't want to make polite chit-chat at a civic reception in Lilongwe when she could be right there in the heart of the planning for a massive event on her patch.

Jack replaces Richard Wildash as High Commissioner. He in turn took over from Tristan Furiouselm, who succeeded Sir John Untamed-Oake. In the meantime, Jack will undertake voluntary work on behalf of the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative in Malawi and Rwanda.

This week, Jack appears before the justice committee at Westminster. The committee is discussing Devolution, One Year On, and will also hear from Lord Steel of Aikwood, first Presiding Officer of the modern-day Scottish Parliament. It would be a cheap jibe to mention Spitting Image's recent return to TV and the damage the show did to David Steel, but what the heck – "Oh, David, you're so handsome".

As I have said before, I feel Jack McConnell came in for much unreasonable flak when he was first minister and that he can look back at the smoking ban, the fact that he put sectarianism on the agenda and his profile-raising in Malawi as just some of the many good things he did.

It would have been great to see how he would have ruled in a parallel universe without the spectre of London Labour always looming over his shoulder.