Reshuffle - In from the Cold.

The wait is over; the grey smoke from the Eckman's chimney has turned white, and we have the results of the reshuffle.

Stewart Maxwell, Maureen Watt, and most sadly from my own point of view, Linda Fabiani, have all lost out, and are heading for the backbenches.

It's good news, however for some deserving souls.

Mike Russell gets Culture (if you see what I mean), and Roseanna Cunningham takes over at Environment.

In a clever move, the amiably acerbic Alex Neil becomes Minister for Housing and Communities, and Keith Brown gets a promotion to Schools Minister.

All three have well earned reputations as strong minded, combative and intellectually very sharp customers.

Those who predicted sackings in the inner cabinet missed the point.
Given hard circumstances, they've done a very steady job so far, and certainly when you look at their shadows on the Labour benches, their ablities are evident.

What we have here is an appreciation by Alex Salmond that two of his former opponents have the abilities to make a serious contribution, and that they are more than capable of giving their Labour counterparts the required treatment.

Interesting days ahead; the gloves will certainly remain off for the foreseeable future.

Brown Toast, Mr Cameron?

In yesterday's Times, Grim Tidings for the Prime Minister, as the latest Populus poll indicated that whatever bounce he had enjoyed over the last couple of months has now given up the ghost and that his support has sagged to a wheezy 28%.

That's a drop of 5% since last month.
Not good.

The Tories are, by contrast, holding at around the 42% mark, and even the LibDems, the customary party of middle England protest, are struggling to get to 18%.

It gets worse for the clunking fist.
David Cameron is seen as the better future Prime Minister, by a margin of 45% to 28%.

To give a sense of perspective to this, last November, in the white hot passion of Gordon Brown's economic master stroke of chucking billions at the banks without seeking any return commitments, the Tory leader was at 32%, to Brown's 52%.
So Brown is down by 24% in the space of three months, which must be some sort of record.

So, is Brown, truly, toast?
Well, the Labour party isn't doing a thing following Milliband's decision to immolate himself politically last year, and now the view is that, in the face of impending electoral disaster, Brown will take the fall.

Come the next election, it appears that he may well be, but it will take the truly hellish prospect of a Tory win to bring it about.