Gavin Yates (Edinburgh, GYmedia): Today's Scotsman reports a very interesting development in the relationship between Scotland's civil service and Whitehall.
Scotland's most senior civil servant, Sir John Elvidge, has revealed that informal communication between the Scottish Executive and Whitehall has already stopped and plans are developing to completely separate the Scottish civil service: this could lead to the rebranding of the Scottish Executive as the Scottish Government.
The article in question was written by Peter MacMahon - a former Labour aide - but it chimes with what is becoming common knowledge in civil service circles in Edinburgh. Opinion is divided on the front line, with one senior civil servant telling me this morning: "This is just posturing. The ability to just pick up the phone and find out direction of travel at Whitehall is really useful and on legal matters it could mean the difference between policy success and failure."
Another was more sang-froid, saying: "I never spoke to them anyway, and if I don't need to go to Sunningdale (Civil Service College) for another course then that's great."
According to some wags, reorganising the civil service is often analogous with moving the deckchairs around on the Titanic. We will have to see if the new boat Scotland chooses is more seaworthy.
