It's best to ignore sporting chancers

CROSS my heart and hope to die, this is (probably) the last piece I'll write on matters Olympian – for a while, anyway. But in the afterglow of such a fantastic sportsfest, I'm impatient with those fellow politicians who just can't let a bandwagon go by. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and First Minister Alex Salmond are equally culpable of hijacking, for their competing political objectives, a spectacularly successful sporting event.

I'm a politician, too, so I recognise the moves. But in relation to the Beijing and London Games, I'm a sports fan first, because, even though I'd love to see a Scottish team in the Olympics, it's not going to happen before Holyrood enjoys sovereignty, which I sincerely hope I will see. But right now, and before such constitutional change is likely, there are athletes from Scotland who're either already "elite", or who'll achieve that status in time to compete in London. As a sports fan, I share their priority . . . to have access to the finest coaches and facilities.

Their time is now, so I'll assist them in whatever way I can, at the same time as putting pressure on the Chancellor in Westminster, and the Holyrood Finance Minister, to properly fund the development of local facilities, whether for cycling, swimming or judo etc. If sport is not properly funded at local level, if playing fields are built on by local councils, then it won't matter who eventually wins the constitutional/identity argument, there won't be any Scottish athletes in future games. And if the current system of developing and supporting athletes from the Lottery were to stop before matching funding from another source were established, fewer Scots would win medals.

So it's no wonder sports fans and leading athletes alike are united in body-swerving Gordon's clunky-fisted attempts to make everyone feel British and dump the nationalists, and Alex's bare-faced attempt to harness Chris Hoy's success to persuade voters Scotland would compete just as successfully flying the Saltire as the Union flag.

Stewart Maxwell, the Scottish Sports Minister, argues for a Scottish Olympic team by citing Jamaica's medals total. With a population of only three million, and with many other calls on its exchequer, Jamaica puts its money into school sport, and specialises in only a handful of sports, including sprinting. The island's potential Olympic medallists, to gain access to top international coaches, follow the same route as top African, European, Australasian and South American athletes in obtaining scholarships at American colleges.

Right now, Manchester could lay claim to being the world's leading centre of excellence for cycling. Even if two international-standard velodromes were built at either end of the M8, it's entirely possible the top-flight coaches for elite cyclists would choose to stay in Manchester, and therefore so would their cyclists. On the other hand, if money were to be spent on a top-class facility for judo this side of the M8, coach Billy Cusack's international reputation, and the squad of elite and emerging athletes who have come from outwith Scotland to be coached by him, could make judo one of Scotland's specialisms.

The benefits of political independence might include an empowering surge of confidence and national pride across a range of activities, but without a guarantee of Olympic medals, Scots athletes will be wary of changing Team GB's set-up.

Norman Tebbit's "cricket test" for national identity no longer applies in top-level sport . . . Brazilians represented Georgia, Africans represented European countries, for example. But the day's well past when a GB football team might have been possible. Gordon was as wrong to float that idea as Alex was to ignore the mood of the moment – to just enjoy the sporting triumph, without too much analysis.

Target for criticism
Alex Salmond and Gordon Brown are out of date. They can't manipulate the Olympics to their political advantage. Added to sometimes suspicious ever-higher standards of individual performance, Baron de Coubertin's philosophy has been overtaken by sponsorship, prohibitive costs and McDonalds coming in from the cold to sell fast food. In sporting terms, the medals table means very little, but in commercial terms, it creates excitement and audiences. It's not a serious analysis of sporting achievement, and shouldn't be a deal-maker or breaker on Scotland's constitutional future.

Following the shooting of an 18-month-old toddler in Birmingham, will English Home Secretary Jacqui Smith eat humble pie and phone Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Minister?

She slapped down his approach to change the law on the ownership and use of airguns, but maybe she'll be less on her high horse now that the danger posed by the present lack of regulation has been so cruelly illustrated.

Don't panic, Barack
When I met the chairman of Barak Obama's campaign he assured me it was no big deal for Hillary Clinton to be nominated. Well that's all right, then . . . I hope.