With the full backing of the Prime Minister, perhaps even at his instigation, Scottish Labour has embarked on a strategy to attract a new breed of politician to represent the voter in the Scottish Parliament and local council chambers: squeaky clean, young, vibrant, loyal. Judging by the speed with which Scottish MSP aspirants are being ditched, despite being Westminster MPs, it appears that the party will have no trouble filling the Holyrood berths with the right people. Getting them to come forward as local authority councillors might be a different matter entirely, particularly when the old guard hangs on by exploiting such troublesome tenets as natural justice.

The Secretary of State for Scotland is a very shrewd fellow and he might just have hit on the perfect ruse to recruit council politicians: get elected to a Labour local authority and get to the World Cup finals. True, it is a long-term strategy but one worth pursuing given

Scotland's fine record of qualifying for the finals. And there is precedent. North Lanarkshire Council, an authority which has blazed a globetrotting trail of junketry, has discovered that, thanks to local government reorganisation, it will be able to renew a twinning agreement with the Paris suburb of St Denis.

This just happens to be the location of the stadium which will host Scotland's opening World Cup fixture against the upstarts of Brazil (which the council delegation will, of course, attend). The St Denisians will foot the local bills. All the delegation will have to pay is the air fares. Well, the taxpayer will. The message is clear for any budding councillor: play the long game and you, too, could be winging your way to the next finals with your chain of office. It could well be worth it, given that they will be hosted by South Korea and Japan. New Labour. New Planet Football Opportunities.