Medal-ing in Highland politics?

By Iain MacDonald BBC Scotland

Highland Council has a new look

The public benches in Highland Council's main chamber were packed. People strained forward in their seats to see every move and hear every word.

It looked as if local democracy was alive and well, as the 80 councillors met for the first time since the SNP last week walked out on the local authority's ruling coalition.

But the truth was they were proud parents and friends there to see 18 young people presented with their Duke of Edinburgh's Awards at what had been billed as a local authority bloodletting.

When the medals were handed over, the benches emptied. And the councillors were left to do their worst to each other.

And even that turned out to be a disappointment. Since the 17-strong SNP group quit last week, there have been cabals and committees in rooms which - thanks to government legislation - are no longer smoke-filled.

The Independents now have a code of conduct which involves not dropping your partners in it, not lambasting council policy and not having a pop at your colleagues

But no deal has been done - and you have the impression that the various parties need more than a Noel Edmonds to make it happen.

The SNP formally resigned from its various high offices at the start of the meeting.

The council suddenly had no vice convener: no planning chair, and Inverness officially had no provost. And because the smoke-free rooms had not produced a new coalition, no-one came forward to take their places.

And so the council continued its business. The leadership of the new Highlands and Islands Enterprise outlined its new role under new government.

They entitled their address "A New Beginning". Not in the chamber, there wasn't.

Instead, the council went into summer recess run by a minority administration of Independents under convener Sandy Park.

Neutrals' choice

In the chamber, there were fulsome tributes and flowers: poetry and passion about the importance of giving children the space to play.

Bizarrely, outgoing vice-convener Jean Urquhart was presented with a bouquet of flowers. Bouquets instead of bloodletting. But outside the chamber� ah, now that was a different story.

By the end of the meeting, this was the casualty list. The Independents had lost two members from their group.

One of them was the former education chairman, Roddy Balfour, who had helped trigger an earlier row between the Independents and the SNP.

They were joined by former Liberal Democrat, Caithness councillor Graeme Smith. He'd seen party politics at work in the council, he said - now he'd decided it was better to represent the community directly rather than through a party. Properly independent, in other words.

Five councillors have now taken that path. They were being photographed together for a newspaper by day's end. But they're not a group. Obviously.

So talks continue. Twenty Liberal Democrats are still all pointing in the same direction, insists their leader Councillor Michael Foxley. It's very hard, though, to determine which direction that is. Labour too has been in conversation with the Independents.

Their leader would be many neutrals' choice as the new provost of Inverness.

The former one, SNP Councillor Bob Wynd says he'll keep doing the job for nothing, till a new civic head is found.

The Independents now have a code of conduct which involves not dropping your partners in it, not lambasting council policy and not having a pop at your colleagues.

If they manage to stick to all that, they may well deserve their own Duke of Edinburgh's Award. And a bouquet or two.

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