Women and politics. A recurring theme in Britain today, first at Westminster last week where prime minister David Cameron's "Petticoat Revolution" infused a distinct feminine flavour into to his Cabinet and now in Glasgow, where the Commonwealth Games are set to be dominated by girl power and political posturing.

First the ladies. Or rather, ladies first. As in London's Olympics, women will be very much to the fore when the medals are handed out. Sporting equality, or as near as dammit, has arrived in force and is here to stay. Hooray for that.

Despite the late withdrawal of England's injured prize athletic asset Katarina Johnson-Thompson, currently the world's leading heptathlete, and the absence of mum-to-be Jessica Ennis-Hill, the 2012 poster girl, there is sufficient female talent now assembling in Glasgow to make the men the also-rans in the race for the podium.

Never more so than in the so-called "power" sports like boxing, wrestling, taekwondo, judo and weightlifting, once the preserve of male might.

Yes, there's Mo Farah, Sir Bradley Wiggins, and a fleeting glimpse of Usain Bolt, but much focus will be on names such as weightlifters Zoe Smith, 15-year-old Rebekah Tyler, the returning Welsh powerhouse Michaela Breeze, a two-times Games gold medallist, wrestlers Yana Rattigan and Chloe Spitteri, taekwondo's Jade Jones, a golden star of 2012, and judo's Gemma Gibbons, whom so poignantly won our hearts and a silver medal in London.

Judoka Gemma Gibbons is among the female names in the so-called power sports set to capture the attention in Glasgow ©Getty Images



And in the boxing ring the main attractions will not be the men, now shorn of headguards and fighting under a pro-style 10 points scoring system, but the women, making their Games debut.

Certainly as far as England are concerned.  Save for Welshman Fred Evans, all of Team GB's male Olympic medal winners - Anthony Joshua,Luke Campbell and Anthony Ogogo - have turned pro, along with team captain Tom Stalker, leaving the women as the dominant force in the sport

The three English women are all gold medal prospects. Olympic champion Nicola Adams, of course (though she has done a bit of a Tom Daley and been distracted by the celeb circuit, recently losing her European title fight); Savannah Marshall, current world middleweight champion from Hartlepool, called the Silent Assassin because of her shyness and phenomenal punching power; and glamorous Liverpudlian Natasha Jonas who looks more suited to the catwalk rather than the ringwalk.

This trio of tigresses, allied to the many female stars from overseas and those of the host nation such as European 800 metres champion Lynsey Sharp, will captivate the crowds and, hopefully, divert attention from the political fun and games that will provide a worrying backdrop to the sporting dramas.

Some say the Commonwealth Games are an anachronism. If that's so, then so is the Commonwealth itself.

The United States, continental Europe, the Middle East, large chunks of Africa and the Orient, including the sporting powerhouses of China and Japan, couldn't give a caber's toss about Glasgow's showpiece.

To them it is just a cosy garden party - one of sport's village fetes. An insignificant little brother to the Olympics.

Yet here's an irony. America may not give a damn about Glasgow 2014 but one of their number is actually in charge of it - and when it finishes he'll be running the whole Commonwealth Games shooting match. Ex-wrestler David Grevemberg, a native of New Orleans, is Glasgow 2014 chief executive and in November he will take over from departing New Zealander Mike Hooper as head honcho of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF). Apparently he beat three British rivals for the job.

Glasgow 2014 chief executive David Grevemberg will head the Commonwealth Games Federation from November ©Getty Images



It's certainly a funny old sporting world.

It will be even more so if, as many suspect, these Games are such a success that they become a principal factor for a "yes" vote when Scotland holds its let's-go-it-alone referendum for independence on September 18, cannily timed to be close to the Games.

No doubt Grevemberg, wearing both his Glasgow 2014 and pending Federation hats, will be keeping an anxious eye on the antics of the man sitting close by in the Royal Box at tomorrow night's Opening Ceremony.

Can Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond be trusted not to turn the evening - indeed the entire Games - into a political rally?

The CGF have tacitly warned that there must be no politicking but no-one is more aware than Salmond how much Scotland, and thus his own cause, might benefit from the London bounce.

A 2012-style feelgood factor will do the Independence campaign no harm at all.

So will he be able to keep unfurled the blue and white Saltire which he waved so enthusiastically when Andy Murray won Wimbledon last year?

Don't bet on it. This Salmond will be leaping.

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond knows a successful Games will do his hopes of Scotland gaining independence no harm ©Getty Images



Not that politics are unknown in the Commonwealth Games. In the past they have endured almost as much of it as the Olympics.

They are certainly no stranger to governmental interference, drugs scandals, even boycotts.

Ironically the last time Scotland hosted a Commonwealth Games, in Edinburgh in 1986, 35 of the 59 eligible nations boycotted in protest at the reluctance of the Thatcher government to tackle apartheid.

Compounded by mismanagement, financial chaos which cost the city millions and the ludicrous pantomime intervention of the Bouncing Czech, the fraudulent Robert Maxwell, as a so-called saviour, they were an unmitigated disaster.

This time things have been far better organised, are said to be within the £563 million ($959 million/€712 million) budget.

The Scots have cheerily patched up the wounds of several big-name athletes pulling out and are set to stage a show that, while it might not emulate London, will be a credit to a proud nation, with most of the 17 sports sold out.

And if Salmond gets his way Rio 2016 could see Team Scotland competing as an independent nation. Such an eventuality would need to be fast-tracked by the International Olympic Committee but precedence suggests they would be compliant as they were with Montenegro for Beijing 2008.

Team Scotland could be walking out into the Maracanã during the Opening Ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympics, if a "yes" vote is the resounding response of the independence referendum ©Getty Images



Although banners containing political slogans will be banned, Scotland's 310 athletes, like all others, will be free to express their own views if asked, although they have been requested to be prudent.

How many will wish to do so is questionable. Certainly few outside the Scottish team seem bothered - Mo Farah said he did not even realise there was a referendum.

Some Scottish athletes are known to be in favour, others against -especially those who benefit from training bases in England and Team GB's liberally-funded facilities.

One who, like Scotland's (indeed Britain's) most decorated Olympian, Sir Chris Hoy, challenges the nationalist declaration that an independent Scotland would be better off with its own Olympics team is the 2012 badminton doubles silver medallist Imogen Bankier. "I just don't think people should be in favour of independence because they've seen Braveheart," she remarked sagely.

It is not a sentiment that will be encouraged by Mr Salmond. Let's hope he is constantly reminded that political posturing is for the hustings, not the podium, and that Glasgow's "village fete" will turn out to be a truly memorable party unspoiled by politics.

Big Brother is watching.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire