Has the SNP “come off the rails in spectacular fashion”, to paraphrase Fiona Bruce on BBC Question Time? Maybe Scotland’s governing party has indeed jumped the tracks, but not in the way imagined.
The First Minister has stirred a hornet’s nest over plans to privatise the troubled Ferguson’s ship yard on the Lower Clyde. No-one needs reminding two unfinished ferries sit there – over budget and way beyond original delivery dates. Island economies are being wrecked meantime and the whole sorry episode looks like a uniquely Scottish failure of governance.
No radio. No social media. And absolutely no television. Last week, a self-imposed news blackout was the only way to avoid coronation overload.
The press stramash at the Scottish Tory conference last week revealed a lot about Prime Ministerial attitudes to Scotland, and much more about the worshipfulness expected from the media.
Burner phones, high-class jewellery, expensive pots and pans and the infamous "beached" motor-home – the police enquiry into SNP finances has reached moments of high farce without charges being brought or dropped. Naturally, with resignations aplenty and admissions of crisis by senior SNP managers, the party is on the back foot. But maybe, against the odds, a small pushback is beginning amongst supporters who are actually joining the party.
A colossus of Tory thinking has attacked the Scottish Government for its diplomatic and trade efforts abroad. Should the First Minister back down in the face of the challenge from Baron Frost? Should he heck. In fact, Scotland could be a lot cuter in the way it represents this country abroad.
As the dust settles on the arrest, tent, police raid, and tabloid search for a glimpse of Nicola Sturgeon or Peter Murrell, the Easter break has given everyone a chance to look around a bit.
So, 15 SNP MSPs are preparing to operate as a distinct grouping – likened by some commentators to a Scottish European Research Group – publishing policy papers, pushing "business-friendly" policy and even amending government legislation.
AS Scotland prepares to discover the identity of the next SNP leader and First Minister, I for one feel strangely perky. As a supporter of independence, that may be surprising.
IS the SNP a broad enough church to house Humza Yousaf, Ash Regan, Kate Forbes and their followers? Or, as Herald columnist Andy Mciver suggested last week, would it be a better strategy to accept the inevitable and let these distinctive groups go their own ways – into new parties or the Labour and Tory parties, turning them over time towards indyref2 and self-determination?
