Is Gordon Brown preparing for a general election next spring? I ask because of 3 particular straws in the wind:

The latest opinion polls seem to be indicating, in England at least, that there's been something of a 'Brown Bounce'.

Chancellor Alastair Darling is reported to be considering combining the annual Pre-Budget Report (usually published in December) with the bi/tri annual Comprehensive Spending Review (July), and publishing in October.

Ed Milliband has reportedly started work on the next Labour manifesto.

I still don't really see the logic, but stranger things have happened. However, it will most likely depend on how the by-election goes in Ealing Southall (sorry, Sedgefield voters, but on past evidence you'll just be taken for granted). It will also, I suspect, depend on whether this apparent lead can be sustained into the new year.

It's worth pointing out that he doesn't actually need to go to the country again until c. May 2010. Are those self-serving Tory jibes about Brown having no mandate (John Major pre-1992, anyone?) starting to get under his skin?

BBC Scotland held a reception in Westminster recently for Scottish MPs and their hangers-on, to herald the publication of their Annual Review. BBC Governor Jeremy Peat gave an interesting and thoughtful speech, in which he touched on the BBC's obligation to better reflect Scotland, not just to the Scots, but to the rest of the UK as well. While sidestepping the issue of a 'Scottish Six', he did dwell on the now compulsory course for BBC news staff, designed to raise awareness throughout the network of the impact of devolution.

It was impeccably unionist, yet there was still enough in there to please nationalists too. A well judged and diplomatic contribution, you might think. Well, not everyone agreed. I'll spare some blushes and preserve the anonymity of the Labour MP who flounced out half way through the speech, ranting about how Peat was 'sounding like a bloody SNP member'. If the MP's colleagues agreed with him, which judging by the positive outward reactions of two Government Ministers to the speech they did not, the rest at least had the good manners to keep their counsel.

As our Labour friend managed to illustrate with uncharacteristic eloquence, their party still doesn't seem to have any collective idea how to respond to the fact that they're out of power in Scotland. In manoeuvring to take over from Jack McConnell, Andy Kerr has made a series of overblown and misjudged attacks on Alex Salmond. Meanwhile, Record columnist and Gordon Brown mouthpiece Tom Brown, had an ad-hominem rant in a recent Scotland on Sunday, the main purpose of which seemed to be to indulge in whinging self-catharsis about the SNP having made an assured start to their period in office.

At Scottish Questions, in defending the constitution unreformed, Des Browne drew a distinction between himself and his Lib Dem questioner, by announcing proudly that he was an 'unevolving devolver'. He might do well to remember that it tends to be the species which fail to evolve and adapt that are the ones which usually end up extinct. Certainly, on the evidence of the last few weeks, there doesn't seem to be much indication yet of any post-election evolution in Scottish Labour.

It was Scottish Questions last week at Westminster, not that you would have noticed from reading the BBC website. If Scottish Questions was a waste of time before devolution - being largely clogged up with home counties Tories asking puffball questions designed to extoll the virtues of the Union - it has even less relevance today, what with there being an SNP government sitting in Edinburgh.

A few MPs were enjoying their first outings following recent party reshuffles. Des Browne and David Cairns have been promoted to Scottish Secretary and Minister of State respectively. Ben Wallace also popped up on the Tory benches as the new sidekick to fellow ex-MSP David Mundell. But to show that some things never change, Livingstone MP Jim Devine again made an eejit of himself, slating the SNP for imposing single status agreements at West Lothian Council, when they were actually set in train by Devine's council colleagues from the outgoing Labour administration.  Oops...

However, perhaps the most surprising and least remarked upon change, was the Lib Dems' replacement of Jo Swinson with Orkney and Shetland MP Alasdair Carmichael. For all that I've said some pretty harsh things about the Lib Dems in the past, I genuinely don't have a bad thing to say about either Jo Swinson or Alasdair Carmichael. Sure, some of Ms Swinson's contributions could be a bit earnest and predictable at times, but I can't think of anything she's either done or not done over the period she held the post to merit her demotion.

That said, Alasdair Carmichael has an easy, fluent manner, and comes across very well indeed. He is clearly head and shoulders above many of his Scottish Lib Dem colleagues, including at this point in time Jo Swinson. However, that was also the case at the time Jo Swinson was appointed, so why change things round now?

Trouble behind the scenes, or further evidence that Menzies Campbell just doesn't really have the stragegic and managerial skills needed to build a decent team? Any Lib Dems prepared to have a go can get in touch at the usual address...