TOMORROW, Scotland goes to the polls to elect our government for the next five years. I always, at election time, marvel at the way my colleagues at the front of the papers get themselves into a lather over opinion polls, which, at the moment are all indicating Alex Salmond will be re-elected to head an SNP government.
That will, I expect, be the outcome - what will remain in doubt until the final vote is counted some time on Friday is: will Wee Eck be heading another minority administration, or will he, this time, have a working majority. The trouble with opinion polls is, they cannot fully answer this question, since pollsters' samplings only question a limited number of voters. In reality the papers should be doing, when commenting on opinion polls is putting-in the disclaimer: "such-and-such a percentage (of those polled) will be voting SNP/SLAB/Monster Raving Looney Party or whatever.
The election campaign has been a compressed SPL campaign - we know it will be one or other of two big teams which will win; we think one of them has a slight advantage as the polls open, but we are not sure if it can hold-on for victory.
Wee Eck Salmond is, I suppose, the Neil Lennon of Scottish Politics. He is now easily the biggest personality in this particular game, he's got an awful lot of enemies, but he almost revels in this hatred, doesn't give a toss what the rest think and will go his own way.
Ian Gray, sadly for SLAB is no Walter Smith, in fact I think he's more like Jim Jefferies. He has this image as a torn-faced so-and-so who is more dogged than gifted and what I understand as a good sense of humour in private never comes across in public. Also, like JJ, he has to deal with an absentee boss, who sits 400 miles away, seldom visits Scotland and pulls all the strings.
I suppose Annabel Goldie is Maw Broon, while wee Craigie in football is Paw Broon. Mind you, going by his track record, Maw fine wummin though she is, is probably 20-years too-old for Paw.
The big difference, however, between Scottish politics and Scottish football is - in football we can definitely tell the big two apart.
WELL done the SPL in voting big Mixu as Clydesdale Bank, SPL Manager of the Year - his feat in righting the good ship Killie, which was listing heavily when he took over has been a display of exceptional management and he has got his just reward in being asked to take over his national side.
I WAS speaking to one of the "names" on a national newspaper sports page this week and this writer, one of the best in the business, was telling me that, since his team is in the SFL Irn-Bru First Division, he has been watching them quite a lot, by choice, whilst duty keeps him otherwise in the SPL.
His opinion is: the First Division is the more-entertaining league. Great, I thought it was only me who thought that; I'm glad someone else has seen the penny drop.
SPEAKING of the gap between First Division and SPL - wouldn't it be great if SFL-style play-offs were intorduced and we had the possibility of two-up, two-down between the two leagues?
I wasn't a great fan of the SFL play-offs when they were first introduced, but, they have grown on me and they are now a definite cracking way to end the season. I like the format, whereby second-bottom of the upper league plays fourth in the lower league, while second and third in the lower league go head-to-head, in the play-off semi-finals. This usually means second-bottom facing second-top in the final, which is only fair, since there is seldom much between the teams finishing second and third in the lower league, or between bottom and second-bottom in the upper one.
We tend to think the SFL teams are maybe a wee bit set in their ways, sort of stick-in-the-mud outfits, but, by introducing play-offs they brightened up the end of the season.
Time to extend the fun and interest to include the SPL I think.
GREAT to see Paul Lambert's Norwich City back in the big time, with automatic promotion to the English Premiership assured. And with Delia Smith doing the purvey, they'll be welcomed back with open arms.
Good news too for Craig Levein; with the Canaries promoted, I would hope Simon Lappin begins to be spoken of as a Scotland possible. He will, hopefully increase the competition for the left back/wide left position in the national team, where his pinpoint crosses could be a potent weapon.
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