On the tour bus
It is, I suppose, PR at the public expense. Despite that, I cannot find it in me to take against the notion of a peripatetic Scottish Cabinet.
, the members of Alex Salmond's Cabinet are being paraded around Scotland, a little like a travelling political circus. Stand by Inverness, Pitlochry and Skye. You're next.
The ostensible reason for holding Cabinet meetings around the country is to ensure that the Ministers at the core of the Scottish Government continue to engage with territories and concerns beyond the central belt.
They could, of course, do this by visiting each other's constituencies or by conducting Ministerial visits. However, there is apparently much to be gained from a collective descent.
What will be the upshot? Presumably, such decisions as are taken at these meetings will resemble the conclusions reached in Edinburgh. That is because these verdicts are, one trusts, based upon sound, detailed evidence and consideration - not because the Ministers happen to be in Pitlochry.
Stop, Brian, stop. Desist. Disavow cynicism. This is a reasonable wheeze which might contribute somewhat to public engagement with governmental politics. It's hermless, as we say in the great and noble city of Dundee.
Plus the formal Cabinet meetings are being backed up by local endeavour, including contact with community and voluntary organisations.
This is a Good Thing, as defined by the seminal work on political history: 1066 and All That.
I can recall Michael Forsyth's Grand Committee Road Show when MPs were despatched to similar settings around the country. Dumfries, indeed, featured a visit by the Prime Minister John Major to the Scottish Grand Committee.
Mr, now Lord, Forsyth, was attempting to demonstrate that the Grand, suitably enhanced, could do pretty well everything that might be achieved by a devolved Parliament, sited in Scotland.
This was, of course, a bogus prospectus - neglecting the fact that the devolved Parliament derives a mandate solely from Scotland, rather than a reflection of the UK voting pattern.
No matter. While it lasted, the Grand on Tour was a great show. I remember with particular affection the quantity and vigour of the public demonstrations which accompanied each separate manifestation.
We have, incidentally, lost something in that regard since Holyrood moved to, well, Holyrood.
The Mound was the spot for demos since MSPs had to travel on foot from their offices at the other side of the Royal Mile, braving tourists, pipers, citizens and, occasionally, horses.
But back to peripatetic politics. All the best to the Cabinet on their tour. Hope they have fine weather. Hope that they, singly, contrive to get some time off to rest the intellect - unlike last summer when they were lashed to the mast throughout by Captain Salmond.
The FM will undoubtedly seek to compare this present exercise with the only occasion to date when the UK Cabinet met outside London.
That was on 7 September 1921, in Inverness, when David Lloyd George called an emergency meeting to discuss the Irish crisis. The PM had been holidaying in the Highlands. For the avoidance of doubt, I didn't cover that political gig.
I'm 
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