Budge has burnt far too many bridges...

IF the few remaining optimists on Planet Earth are right, we’re about to move beyond the politics of personality — and emerge into an age where policies matter more than likability. Hearts fans must hope that the glass-half-full brigade are spot on. It’s their only hope. Because league reconstruction is probably, on balance, the least worst idea to redress some of the imbalances caused by the enforced curtailing of football in Scotland. Yes, the Scottish Premiership will almost certainly be a better product by retaining the Edinburgh derby and — by dint of Inverness being promoted alongside Dundee United — reintroducing regular meetings of the great Highland rivals. But the biggest obstacles confronting Ann Budge as she prepares her own members’ resolution to put before all 42 SPFL clubs? Let’s start with the fact that the Hearts owner has repeatedly gone out of her way to antagonise and alienate this very select ‘electorate’. Even if decision makers at her fellow top-flight clubs rise above the hurt of being threatened and, in the case of those on the SPFL board, accused of incompetence or worse, that might not be enough. Because can you really see even a majority of Championship clubs voting for anything that gives Inverness Caledonian Thistle a leg up? They won’t be queuing up to reward Caley Thistle chief executive — and celebrity WhatsApp influencer — Scot Gardiner. In truth, Budge might gain more second-tier support if she tweaked her plans. And included a clause banishing Inverness back to the Highland League.