New Statesman Scotland

Now that Donald Dewar, the First Minister, has become a (presumably regular) visitor to Balmoral, he joins that exclusive guest-list of top pols who have been making the summer pilgrimage to Deeside ever since the 1850s, when Victoria and Albert made the heights of Scotland the height of fashion. Whether he enjoyed himself, we have yet to hear. But dismal surroundings are often conducive to reflection. Perhaps the First Minister took the chance to ruminate on just how the Queen's Household in Scotland should rub along with the political establishment on this side of the Tweed.

Assuming that our parliamentarians are not about to abolish the Queen's train of loyal Scottish banner-bearers, heralds, pursuivants, chaplains and so on, shouldn't Dewar at least try to equalise things? Shouldn't Holyrood have its equivalent of the three Labour MPs (Tom McAvoy, Keith Bradley and Graham Allen) who are members of the Queen's Household in England and act as a sort of link between the royals and the Commons? In our more modest polity, one suitably deferential MSP from the ruling party should do the trick. Nominations on a postcard, please.

While we are on the subject of royal ramifications: the Queen, her husband, their offspring and some relations seem to be colonels-in-chief to the armies of Britain and most of the (white) Commonwealth. Among the Scottish units, the Queen is figurehead for the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, the Scots Guards and the Argylls, while the Duke of Edinburgh does for the Highlanders. The Queen Mum has the Black Watch, Princess Anne the Royal Scots, Princess Margaret the Royal Highland Fusiliers, while the King's Own Scottish Borderers make do with Alice, Duchess of Gloucester. Prince Charles, the heir-apparent, has no Jocks under his wing. And for reasons not at all clear, no military units have been assigned to Prince Edward.

All of which raises an interesting question. What will happen when Her Majesty - how shall we say - vacates the throne? Will her successor get to choose which regiments he wants to preside over? Will there be a solemn convocation of royal colonels to thrash it out? Or will the regimental cap badges go into an upturned coronet to be pulled out at some house-party lottery? Or is some departmental sub-committee of the Ministry of Defence already agonising over who goes where? Seeking horses for courses, as it were. But somebody, somewhere, seems to have a sense of humour: the Duke of Edinburgh is colonel-in-chief of the Intelligence Corps.

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