NEVER let it be said that sycophancy in politics doesn't work.

Why else would Midlothian MSP Rhona Brankin be promoted to Communities Minister?

All those question times asking "would the First Minister agree with me that he is totally wonderful" have at last paid off.

This appointment has undermined Jack McConnell far more than anything the SNP has been able to inflict on him this week.

Senior Ministers simply can't believe what he's done and at least one of them is believed to have tried to warn him off this particular choice.

The reaction of his backbenchers ranged from "nightmare", to questioning whether Mr McConnell is losing the plot.

They believe he has bowed to pressure to have an east coast MSP because of the west coast make-up of his Cabinet.

In the Executive, geography is now more important than ability.

Mr McConnell's judgement is being questioned in an unprecedented way by his own colleagues.

Headlines proclaiming "3-time flop Rhona wins Cabinet job" were surely not what he wanted to read.

As deputy Rural Development Minister she was burned in effigy by fishermen over the decommissioning of their boats, and last year she was forced to drop controversial sections of the Crofting Bill.

The First Minister is said to have ordered his troops to shut up and stop criticising the appointment, but his own faith in it may not be entirely 100%.

Just a couple of hours before it was announced his advisers were saying he was still considering who was to get the job - so what has he been doing since former Minister Malcolm Chisholm resigned four days before Christmas?

And unlike the couple of recent big appointments when Mr McConnell was happily photographed with Hugh Henry taking over as Education Minister and Elish Angiolini as Lord Advocate, Ms Brankin left Bute House on her own refusing to answer questions.

A WRITER to the Evening Times letters page queried why Socialist MSP Rosie Kane continued to be paid while she was in prison for non-payment of a fine.

She, along with her Trot colleagues Frances Curran and Carolyn Leckie, was arrested again this week at an anti-Trident demonstration at Faslane.

There are no criminal proceedings this time, but even if there had been she could still earn her £50,000-a-year parliamentary salary plus the expenses that go with it, at least until the elections in May.

But why should MSPs be paid if they're in jail?

Most ordinary members of the public would simply be sacked.

Ms Kane and her SSP pals are drawn to protest and what they see as political martyrdom, if they get lifted, like moths to a flame. Perhaps they should enjoy the publicity while they can - current polling suggests they may not be around Holyrood after May.

Meanwhile, other MSPs who manage to take part in protests without ending up in the cells could earn some public credibility by stopping the wages of any of their Holyrood colleagues while they're in prison.

HEALTH Minister Andy Kerr is growing in political stature, but if he has eyes on becoming First Minister he should take more care about his publicity stunts.

The man in charge of a £10billion budget was due in his local constituency East Kilbride today, according to an Executive press release, "to persuade shoppers to wash hands".

He'll improve his credibility if he washes his own hands of infantile photo opportunities.