THERE are plenty of legitimate reasons to criticise the SNP Government; and there’s plenty of criticism of the SNP Government which is simply manufactured nonsense.

For the latter, look no further than the latest embarrassing, self-defeating whines of Scottish Tories, crying into their cocktails over Nicola Sturgeon travelling to America. She’s not a councillor. She’s the leader of Scotland’s Government. It’s her job to represent us on the world’s stage. Do Tories think so little of themselves and their country? Have some gumption, get off your bellies and hold your head up high, for pity’s sake.

What irritates so much about such fabricated bleating is that it distracts from the real issues which demand the SNP be brought to book. If you complain about every piece of fluff, then the genuine grievances become meaningless for fatigued voters.

So while Tories whinge about nothing in particular, the SNP is currently getting away with an act of egregious hypocrisy, undermining public scrutiny and basically laughing up its sleeve at the electorate as it plays us for fools.

The matter in hand is the legal advice surrounding any second referendum. The SNP refused to release the advice, claiming that’s a “long-standing convention”, and to make the information public would hamper discussions between government and lawyers.

That’s not true, though. The SNP has made a habit of demanding that confidential legal advice provided to the Westminster Government be made public. Demands were made by the SNP for legal advice pertaining to the war in Iraq, and Brexit, to be disclosed.

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It stinks of double standards. When the SNP wanted the Westminster government to come clean over Iraq and Brexit its leaders grandstanded as the good guys. And at the time, they were on the side of the angels. The public deserved to know.

Now though, when the shoe is on the other foot, the SNP hides behind the same excuses as Westminster. The SNP has a long habit of secrecy and doing all it can to avoid scrutiny. It also has a long habit of running with the hares and hunting with the hounds. In London, it’s the plucky champion of the people; in Edinburgh, it treats the people like the proverbial mushroom – kept in the dark and fed a constant diet of … well, let’s just say rather unappetising spin and obfuscation, shall we?

Here’s the background to this unedifying case study in political hypocrisy: the SNP refused to make public any legal advice received over Indyref2, after requests were made under Freedom of Information laws in January last year by the Scotsman newspaper. The paper appealed as it’s entitled to do.

The Information Commissioner, Daren Fitzhenry, then ruled a few weeks ago that the Government should publish the advice, finding that the “exceptional” public interest outweighed any legal privilege. Mr Fitzhenry said that keeping the advice secret would “actively harm accountability and scrutiny and be counter to the public interest”.

He pointed out that the Government previously chose to disclose legal advice relating to complaints against Alex Salmond.

In response to the Information Commissioner’s findings, the Government high-handedly replied that it was “considering carefully” whether to make advice public. Nicola Sturgeon claimed departing from the convention of not publishing would be a “significant” step.

What utter nonsense. Nicola Sturgeon and her Government must think – to purloin a rather dull cliché beloved of Holyrood parliamentarians – that the Scottish people "button up the back".

Let’s just remind ourselves of a few historic facts. Back at the time of the Iraq War, the SNP at Westminster was, rightly, at the forefront of the campaign to force Tony Blair’s Government to disclose the Attorney General’s advice about the legality of the invasion. MPs even debated a joint Plaid Cymru/SNP motion calling for the legal advice to be published in full. This courageous opposition to the Iraq war was central to many former Labour voters in Scotland switching to the SNP.

Click forward to 2018, and you may recall that the SNP was also at the centre of demands for the secret legal advice on Brexit to be made public by the Tory Government of Theresa May. After the UK Government refused to reveal the confidential material, the SNP took part in a “contempt of Parliament” vote.

I contacted the Scottish Government, highlighting these two important moments in recent history, and asked how such previous demands for the release of legal advice from the Westminster Government sat alongside the current position of refusing to publish legal advice on another referendum. Was it not hypocritical, I asked?

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Here’s the pitiful response I received, on behalf of SNP ministers: “There is a long-standing convention, observed by UK governments and Scottish governments, that government does not disclose legal advice, including whether Law Officers have or have not advised on any matter – except in exceptional circumstances. The content of any such advice is confidential and subject to legal professional privilege. This ensures that full and frank legal advice can be given.”

So in other words: no answer, just an arrogant refusal to engage with the substance of the inquiry. The truth is, like all governments, the SNP has no desire to be held to account.

This is a Government, after all, which suddenly – conveniently – finds important lost documents on the ongoing ferries scandal, just when pressure starts to mount up. The SNP Government has been accused to trying to keep bullying allegations secret. Back in March, the Government refused to explain the sudden departure of the chief executive of the state-owned Scottish National Investment Bank, Eilidh Mactaggart, who took home a taxpayer-funded salary of £235,000.

Here’s our key political dysfunction: too many in the Yes camp let the SNP away with such contempt towards the public as the party represents their greatest wish – a route to independence; in turn, they accuse unionists parties of every offence imaginable. On the flip side, too many No voters turn a blind eye to unionist parties’ failings, and support them come what may as they represent the only route to blocking independence. While we’re trapped in this double-bind, scrutiny dies, politics rots, the people are failed, and the country stagnates.

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