Scotland needs a reset – it's time to call an election

Surely Scotland needs a reset? And if there was ever an opportunity for reset, it’s now as SNP members decide who they want to rule this country as the next First Minister.

Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation was a watershed. Like her or loathe her, she towered over not just Scottish but British politics. For much of her time in office, I admired her. She was able and empathetic in contrast to the chaos and cruelty of the Conservative Party and the poleaxed bewilderment of Labour.

Towards the end, though, it was clear her government had just ran out of steam. Policies were enacted in disastrous ways. From ScotWind to the gender legislation, ideas which were good in principle (more green energy, better rights for minorities) failed terribly as they just weren’t thought through properly. Even mundane plans to return empty bottles and cans has turned into a joke. It’s a mark of political entropy.

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Sturgeon was right to quit, and she did so with dignity. Clearly, she felt it better to get out before matters deteriorated further. Here’s the thing though: if the First Minister saw that her government was running out of steam, surely, with her now going, it’s time to find out if the Scottish electorate feels the same.

Post-Sturgeon do the people of Scotland think it’s time for a change? Should the people not be given the right to endorse our new FM, rather than leaving this matter to SNP members? Should there not be an election now that the woman who shaped the very nature of modern Scottish politics is stepping down?

It was Sturgeon’s government which was elected, not the government of Kate Forbes, Ash Regan or Humza Yousaf. Now clearly, Scotland doesn’t operate under a presidential system. But let’s be honest, the Sturgeon government was presidential. She ruled the roost. Now whether that’s by design, or just an accident due to the lack of talent in her Cabinet is neither here nor there.

'It was Sturgeon's government which was elected, not the government of Kate Forbes, Ash Regan or Humza Yousaf' (Image: Newsquest)

It was Sturgeon who won elections. She’s the person people were really voting for. Her Cabinet had so little clout or visibility that few outside the media-political bubble knew many of them by name, or face.

The SNP is deeply rattled by this leadership contest. The party is in the midst of an ugly identity crisis. For what is the SNP without Sturgeon? Is it the socially conservative party of Forbes, the Brexitesque party of Regan who thinks she can just kick in doors to get independence, or the centrism of the continuity candidate Yousaf?

That’s why SNP apparatchiks didn’t want the media at its leadership hustings. In an anti-democratic act of cowardice, the SNP initially planned to shut reporters out – though it wasn't just shutting reporters out, it was shutting out the Scottish public too. Without reporters there, voters would have no idea what was happening.

It speaks of the SNP’s contempt for the electorate, a contempt borne out of holding power for so long. The same illness infected Labour before its Scottish implosion. The SNP – like Labour once did – thinks the electorate will vote it into power no matter what. That way ruin always lies.

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So there’s many reasons to hold a new election. The people deserve a say in who leads Scotland, the nation is politically exhausted and needs refreshed, the next government may well be remarkably different to the one voters elected – it could drift right on economics and social issues, it could push a hostile approach to independence, it could split with the Greens in government. Surely, ordinary folk need the chance to make their voices heard on who governs them once the SNP installs its new leader?

There’s one final reason for an election: it’s what the SNP would want. When Rishi Sunak was crowned Tory leader and new Prime Minister in October last year the then SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford called for a General Election. “Voters must get a say,” he insisted. “No one voted for this,” he claimed. There was “no mandate”.

The Tories were “running scared of democracy … because they fear the verdict of the people”, and “cannot be allowed to impose” a Prime Minister.

More importantly, when Liz Truss resigned, Nicola Sturgeon said that a General Election was a “democratic imperative”. The UK, she said, “needs to have a democratic choice over its next Prime Minister”.

Surely, in the interests of fairness, the same must apply to Scotland now that we are to see a new First Minister once SNP members make their decision? It’s either democracy for all, or democracy for none. The old adage comes to mind: “What’s good for the goose, is good for the gander”.

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Scotland does not deserve more chaos. There’s even talk that if Forbes is elected a group of SNP MSPs could try torpedoing her leadership by refusing to vote for her as FM. Then what? Does the SNP descend into the madness we saw grip the Tories, with all the concomitant damage to the nation?

The best, most decent path for Scotland is another Holyrood election. But politicians rarely do the best, most decent thing for their country, they care about their own careers and the interests of their party, in that order. SNP fortunes are also waning and they fear fighting any election right now.

Evidently, there is no mechanism, no precedent, for Sturgeon’s going to trigger an election, so although it’s the course that should be taken, it clearly won’t happen. But there is absolutely no reason why voters who care about the future of this country shouldn’t make it abundantly clear that a Holyrood election is now in the best interests of Scotland.