AT the start of the Commonwealth Games it may be appropriate to ponder on the huge influx of commentators and presenters from the BBC south of the Border.

BBC television and radio have sent their people up North to be the faces and voices of the Games. They will be the main reporters for the UK and will be broadcast nationally and internationally.

The reporting team includes Hazel Irvine, Clare Balding and that chap who sells crisps. Ms Irvine will be providing some commentary and no doubt reporting on the less popular events such as bowling, while Ms Balding and others will take the lead on the headlining items, despite the fact that Hazel Irvine has never made a crass, rude or impertinent comment at any time, unlike Ms Balding and John Inverdale,who have said very inappropriate things at the Olympics and at Wimbledon.

They and their support staff will be staying here at the expense of those who pay the licence fee, not just the Scots licence payers, of course, but that is not the point.

I have little doubt that that the staff at BBC Scotland, numbering some 1500 people, would have risen to the occasion had they not been brushed aside. Those presenters, interviewers and commentators whose work has been confined to "local" - that is, Scottish - news and sport would have had a chance to show what they could do on a broader canvas, to a much wider audience. This is a chance missed.

The BBC is not providing the TV coverage. It has been awarded the broadcasting rights but the TV coverage has been subcontracted to Sunset+Vine and Global Television as they are experts in sports broadcasting, apparently.

The BBC is providing only presentation and commentary and not the pictures. Nevertheless, there will be a huge takeover of the Games by BBC from the south.

It is surely a defining example of the patronising attitude that the BBC takes to all things Scottish. They send their choice of staff to take over what should be the work of BBC Scotland, because it is taken for granted that the chaps and chapesses from HQ will be innately superior to the natives, regardless of any evidence to the contrary. The fact that they have built a special Games studio on the banks of the Clyde may indicate that the BBC from the south may even rival in number the sportsmen and women actually participating.

It seems that the opportunity has been taken to remind us that we are indeed the most junior of partners and that Home County accents are to be the international voices of the UK even when an event is hosted by, and held in, Scotland.

Andrew Paterson,

The Smithy,

Clintmains,

Berwickshire.

WHILST I agree that it would be unwise to use the Commonwealth Games as a conduit for political point-scoring, it strikes me as somewhat ironic that some of those who argue loudest for this "moratorium" do so by making overt political statements to promote their position.

Alan Stephen (Letters, July 23) pleads for the Games to be free of politics and then promptly makes a political point to stress his viewpoint by addressing his request to Alex Salmond. I note he made no such request to other politicians. The same can be said for Alistair Carmichael ("Carmichael warns Salmond: don't use Games to promote Yes vote", The Herald, July 21). He warned that Alex Salmond should not politicise the Games, but in saying so, he himself is making a political statement concerning the Games.

Rather than politics having an impact on the Games, I suggest that it will actually be the other way round - the Games will have an impact on politics. If, as we all hope, the Games are a great success and Team Scotland does well, then we could very well detect a surge in Scottish confidence, pride and self-esteem. These are some of the important attitudes needed when one is considering whether we can make an independent Scotland successful. If the Commonwealth Games produces this kind of by-product, then so be it. A successful Games will have an inevitable effect on the positive mindset of many Scots and the political consequences will be gauged on September 18. Who knows, political commentators in the future may label it the Commonwealth Games factor.

I just hope politicians don't milk it, after all they don't need to. We, the voters, will decide whether the Games have influenced us politically or not, we don't need politicians to point it out to us.

Alan Carroll,

24 The Quadrant,

Clarkston, Glasgow.