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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Well now, on July 23rd the 20th Commonwealth Games will begin right here in Glasgow. They have been of course years in the planning but taking place less than two months before the referendum vote on Scottish independence, could they not become a bit of a political football in that independence debate? Well the Games Chief Executive, David Grevemberg, is here with me now, very good to see you David. Well that must be part of the planning, I know you want to be thinking about other things and a lot of other things I know on your mind, but are you going to get caught up in that independence debate do you think?

DAVID GREVEMBERG: Well one of the things about the Games, there has been this common purpose that everyone has really rallied around so we have had cross-part support from east to west, from north to south, really across Glasgow, across Scotland and across the UK, people have really just rallied around the magic of these Games and the ambitions behind these Games and so we need all of that energy to be focused on the success.

DM: I know people are going to flock to the Games, they want to volunteer, they want to come and see them of course, do you think if the politicians try and muscle in, people power will say ‘Hey guys, this is a sporting event, we want to watch that.’

DAVID GREVEMBERG: We’ve given these Games to the people and so from our ticketing programme to our volunteer programme to the Queen’s baton relay which is of course travelling the globe right now, these are the People’s Games and so from that standpoint everyone wants to be here with a common purpose and not really a divisive purpose.

DM: Tell me about the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome we’re sitting in, it’s magnificent, you can see loads and loads of young people cycling round here, it’s pouring down with rain. I don't think if there wasn’t a velodrome they’d be cycling around outside, that tells us about the importance of events like this doesn’t it? Sorry, venues like this.

DAVID GREVEMBERG: Glasgow got it right I think from early days when it was bidding for these Games, it looked at making sure that the ambitions behind these Games were actually far greater than the Games themselves and this velodrome is a prime example of that. It’s world-class but community relevant and one of the fantastic metrics that came out of the first ten months of operation was this velodrome was named the most well-used velodrome in terms of footfall worldwide.

DM: You’ve kind of gone pre-legacy there, thinking about some of the Olympic venues, people are getting to use them indeed several years after the Olympics happened. This is, as you were just telling me there, this is getting an awful lot of footfall, tyre fall, before the main event.

DAVID GREVEMBERG: That’s right. It’s good business, it’s good for the community cohesion, it’s good for healthy active lifes as well so it really fits very well and of course it is going to play host to a fantastic competition for eleven days this July.

DM: But what do you say to people though who look at the Commonwealth Games and say they’re a bit of an irrelevance. The Commonwealth, what is the Commonwealth anymore and is it real competition with some of the biggest sporting nations not there? Indeed in the past a lot of the hosts of the Commonwealth Games have had a pretty difficult financial time.

DAVID GREVEMBERG: I think that is why it was very important here in Glasgow to have a brave conversation. So we took some courageous conversations and really started to understand what these Games mean. 2.3 billion citizens of the Commonwealth, of which 1.3 or more than 50% are young people and this is a huge public investment, 80% of our budget is public investment so everything that we’ve done we’ve thought with a legacy consciousness and also having a courageous conversation about what is the Commonwealth. What the fantastic point is here is that we are starting to get a real, real lesson in …

DM: You keep talking about legacy, how much time, can I ask you this just very quickly, is divided between the organisational side of making sure the Commonwealth Games are a huge success, I know you want that to happen but that they have that legacy, getting people involved?

DAVID GREVEMBERG: We try to be both efficient and effective in that conversation so in everything that we’re doing in terms of our planning, we try to have it as a forethought. We ask the question, have we done the due diligence to think about when we’re making this investment or when we’re taking this approach, can we leave something that will last the test of time, well beyond 2014, whether it is accessibility and inclusion, whether it is environment sustainability, whether it is just community cohesion and health …

DM: And I’m going to add one other thing, given the theme of the programme, whether it is an independent Scotland or not. Best of luck and on the 23rd we’ll all be watching. David Grevemberg, good to see you there.