Henry McLeish begins every speech with a ritual reference to the late Donald Dewar. Then, he proceeds to demolish the myth that has grown around the memory.
The new First Minister may have succeeded Dewar, but he is making sure he is not seen as his political heir. The sound from Edinburgh is the grating noise of the Scottish government changing gear and direction as McLeish rewrites his predecessor's legacy.
In two weeks, during which his actions have belied the lavish "Dianafication" of Donald, he has stamped a new style on the executive and acted with startling speed to extricate it from a series of inherited embarrassments.
Crises that Dewar could not, or would not, deal with have been sorted. His cronyish style, described as "government by coterie", has been replaced by the inclusive "Team McLeish". Thrusting young politicians (who DD did not think were ready) have been promoted and left-wingers (who DD thought had no place in the government) have become ministers. Even Dennis Canavan, whose presence in the Scottish Parliament was a sitting reproach to Dewar, who said he was "frankly not good enough" to be an MSP, is being welcomed back.
No one can detract from the Dewar legacy in the big things - the delivery of devolution, the setting up of the parliament and his "Father of the Nation" status - but his grasp of government, mastery of detail and managerial style (or lack of it) left much to be desired.
Also, McLeish has to be his own man, free from the long shadow cast by Big Don and Downing Street. The consequences are immediately obvious in Scotland, but the tremors may soon be felt at Westminster.
As part of McLeish's wholesale overhaul of policies, he has called for a re-think on the key recommendation of the Sutherland report - that the state should fund the personal long-term care of the elderly - which was rejected only last month by Dewar, in line with UK policy.
Social security is a power reserved to Westminster, but care provision is devolved. Unilateral implementation of Sutherland would be a daring assertion of Scottish self-government and a direct challenge to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to follow suit.
For the first time since the creation of the welfare state, there could be a major difference in the way people are treated in Scotland and England. To cope with a cross-border exodus of pensioners from England to Scotland, taking advantage of Scotland's generosity to its old people, officials are investigating the possibility of introducing residential qualifications.
Unlike Dewar, whose approach was more aloof, McLeish is unashamedly populist: "If you are rooted in public concern, then you will know that every organisation you talk to - every medical group, every local authority, the Sutherland group, the PLP, the Liberal group, the opposition - is in favour. Sometimes you have to say to yourselves: 'Well, look, there is a firm body of opinion. Is what we have as a policy the right thing to do?'"
The move would have to be paid for out of the block grant from Westminster or the penny-in-the-pound tax-varying power, which Labour has said it will not use during this first parliament. It may be a shrewd ploy by McLeish, since spending plans have been agreed up to 2003.
But it also allows him to parade his credentials as someone who once pulled on a Scottish jersey, albeit as a teenage international: "If you are First Minister, it's what is in the best interests of Scotland that matters. And if that means skirmishes with Westminster, differences with Westminster, so be it."
The changes in Team McLeish, which involve implied criticism of the Dewar regime, include the transfer of Jack McConnell to education. McConnell has acted swiftly to sort out the Higher exams shambles, sacking the board of the Scottish Qualifications Authority within days of his move.
More risible is the flutter in the precious world of Scottish arts and culture caused by the appointment of (horrors!) a football fan Allan Wilson, and the reversal of his title to Minister of Sport and Culture. The Mcluvvies were even more appalled when a fellow MSP welcomed the appointment and looked forward "to hearing less about Puccini and more about Porrini" (one of Glasgow Rangers' foreign imports).
Cultural snobbishness apart, it might have been better if the new minister had not mentioned his enthusiasm for karaoke machines, which he discovered on a Las Vegas holiday, as a means of helping the masses express themselves.
Dewar was an armchair football fan, but his real interests were antiquarian books and the Scottish colourists. McLeish, in keeping with Cool Caledonia, has a comprehensive collection of prints by his fashionable fellow Fifer Jack Vettriano.
Most ironic of all is the deal stitched up with Dennis Canavan. In return for withdrawing his threat of triggering an embarrassing Westminster by-election in Falkirk West, Canavan may have his Labour Party membership restored by the end of this month.
This means fixing Labour's organisation committee and National Executive Committee, the Scottish Executive and the constituency Labour Party, a blatant use of the control-freakery against which Canavan railed. Any mention of the five-year rule, Ken Livingstone, the resentment of Labour MSPs who were described by Canavan as new Labour "puppets", or the rights of voters who returned him as an Independent, are shrugged off.
Canavan admits it would never have happened while Dewar was alive, but now pragmatism and populism rule and the prodigal son returns. Team McLeish plays to win.
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