WENDY Alexander made a return to frontline politics yesterday as Jack McConnell, the Labour leader, appointed her shadow finance minister.
Ms Alexander's return to the front bench at Holyrood was part of a wide-ranging reshuffle after Labour's failure to hold on to power at Holyrood.
Her appointment - to shadow John Swinney as minister for finance and sustainable growth - gives Ms A
lexander a high-profile role which will leave her well placed to stand for the party leadership.
As cabinet secretary for finance and sustainable growth, Mr Swinney has a vast range of responsibilities.
Many Labour MSPs believe that Mr McConnell, who led the party to second place in the Scottish elections, will choose to resign as leader or be forced out before the next Holyrood elections.
Ms Alexander, who pulled out of standing against Mr McConnell for the leadership after Henry McLeish had to resign, stayed on as a minister but eventually left the cabinet in 2002.
Last night, MSPs were speculating that Mr McConnell had brought her back into frontline politics to limit her ability to be a backbench focus for discontent with his leadership.
However, others said that they thought that Mr McConnell had no choice in that he needed Ms Alexander's abilities to ensure that Mr Swinney's super-ministry faces proper scrutiny.
In other changes announced yesterday, former parliamentary business minister, and another candidate for the leadership, Margaret Curran is promoted to shadow justice minister.
Her previous role in charge of parliamentary business has been taken by Cathy Jamieson. This means the deputy leader will also sit on the parliamentary bureau which decides the order of legislation, a key role in a minority government.
The third leadership contender Andy Kerr retains the health brief and Hugh Henry remains in education.
Iain Gray, the former minister who lost his Holyrood seat in 2003 but returned as MSP for East Lothian last month, is shadow enterprise minister.
The only departure is Tom McCabe, who steps down from finance to be Labour's nominee for a place on the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body - the group that runs Holyrood.
It is understood that Mr McCabe was offered a senior post by Mr McConnell but did not wish to continue in a frontline role.
Junior posts have meant promotion for a number of members. Pauline McNeill will shadow the children's minister, Paul Martin the community safety minister and Ken MacIntosh the schools minister.
Announcing his new line-up, Mr McConnell said: "While we disagree strongly with Alex Salmond's decision to create a guddle of cabinet responsibilities, Labour will form an effective opposition by shadowing each minister directly.
"I am particularly pleased to welcome Wendy Alexander and Iain Gray back to frontline politics, and to promote Pauline McNeill, Ken MacIntosh and Paul Martin, who will use their parliamentary skills to very good effect in holding the new government accountable."
He described the new front bench team as "able, experienced and committed to building a better Scotland".
"We will oppose Nationalist plans which would damage Scotland, but we will also seek to work with the new government, and others, where we can agree measures which will build up Scotland," he said.
He went on: "Tom McCabe served Scotland well in his ministerial duties and I will always be very grateful for the dedication and good judgment he showed.
"This new, divided parliament will need strong, experienced people to manage the institution and I am delighted Tom wishes to serve in the Corporate Body."
Meanwhile, the Scottish Conservatives also announced their front bench with a couple of re-shuffles.
Derek Brownlee, at 32 one of the youngest MSPs, is the finance spokesman while Murdo Fraser has taken on the education brief. Mary Scanlon has taken health and Bill Aitken has justice and John Scott has rural affairs.
Like all the parties, the Conservatives have chosen a hard hitter to sit in the Parliamentary Bureau - David McLetchie.
The Liberal Democrats are due to announce their shadow cabinet next week.
Success built on politically independent frame of mindIT IS a phrase which has become common currency amongst Scotland's political journalists and commentators.
If you see a colleague clutching a sheaf of papers covered in graphs and looking puzzled, it's a fair bet they have been "Wendy-ied".
The Wendy in question is Alexander, newly restored to a senior role in the ranks of a Scottish Labour group at Holyrood which is slowly adjusting to the unfamiliar position of being the opposition.
Ms Alexander is, unquestionably, one of the brightest MSPs at Holyrood, probably the brightest, and her formidable intellectual ability will be deployed in holding John Swinney and his 'super-ministry' to account.
Her qualifications testify to that ability. She graduated with MA(Hons) from Glasgow University an MA(Econ) from Warwick University and an MBA from the prestigious INSEAD institution in France.
But there is more to Wendy Alexander than brains. Politics runs in the family. Brother Douglas is Transport Secretary and Scottish Secretary too. When she was young she was a researcher for the Scottish Labour party. When she was very young she worked for George Galloway, though she does not boast about that now.
Wendy and Douglas are children of the manse, raised with Presbyterian values, dinner table debate and that particular kind of Kirk egalitarianism that valued intellectualism and hard work - a background she shares with her mentor Gordon Brown.
If Donald Dewar was the father of the nation, Ms Alexander might be said to be the daughter who took forward his political inheritance.
She was one of Mr Dewar's special advisers in the Scottish Office and became an MSP and one of his cabinet ministers in 1999.
But Ms Alexander has always denied being from one of the two great factions in the modern UK Labour party, once saying: "I'm not anyone's girl - certainly not Gordon Brown's girl."
