SNP and Tories are spoiling us with promises of mutual destruction

Projecting much?

The SNP and the Scottish Tories are forever in a state of pitiable psychodrama, but now they’re showing their inner terrors as clearly as a Viennese patient clambering on to Freud’s couch.

The SNP is praying for and predicting the destruction of the Tories, and the Tories are praying for and predicting the destruction of the SNP.

With fitting irony, it’s both who are looking at their own ruination come election time. So some projection obviously helps with the political and psychological cognitive dissonance.

John Swinney says he’s the man to kick the Tories from “every single one of the Conservative-held seats in Scotland”. Douglas Ross believes he can “deliver a fatal blow” and make Scotland “free of the SNP”, killing off independence along the way.

Now, clearly there are many folk out there who will be thinking that the SNP and Tories are really spoiling them with all these promises of nuclear Armageddon-style Mutually Assured Destruction … aptly named MAD. Plenty of voters would like to see the back of both parties.

Of course, the SNP and the Scottish Tories both conveniently skip over the fact that it’s the Labour Party which has political momentum and will undoubtedly bloody both their noses on the way to Downing Street. But what can you expect? It’s psychologically rather difficult to confront your fears, after all.

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However, what to make of these vows to annihilate the enemy from the SNP and Tories? You could, clearly, just write it off as the same old rubbish we hear from politicians every election. "I’m wonderful. I’ve the answers. My opponent must be destroyed." It’s rather stupid and obvious, but then most politicians are quite dim and unsophisticated, so no surprise there.

You could, I suppose, take some comfort in the concept of "karma". The nonsense the two parties are spouting will clearly come back to haunt them. Both talk up the ruination of their rival, yet both will likely be humiliated come the election.

Big deal, I hear some cry. Who cares if two rotten parties which gave us rotten government get thumped?

Perhaps, both leaders have drunk their own Kool-Aid and really believe this nonsense - despite consistent, prolonged polling showing they’re both in trouble.

There’s something more worrying about this destructive impulse the two parties share, though, beyond the obvious lies, delusion and the clear proof that they consider us all fool enough to believe such garbage.

The troubling truth is this: their mutual hatred is proof positive of why Holyrood has ceased to function. Swinney and Ross both symbolise "the old politics", the politics we need to get away from if we’re to make government better so our society improves.

The pair represent the failure of devolution. Devolution was meant to bring politicians together across tribal divides to work in our interests. These two men and their parties have no interest in our interests, they only care about their tribe and destroying their rivals.

Swinney and Ross are a metaphor for the death of compromise - and without compromise all we get is the rotten government we’ve seen at Westminster for generations, and at Holyrood for years now.

That alone is reason enough why the dreams of both Swinney and Ross should come true. If they want to keep us locked in this state of political cold war, where nothing gets done and nobody compromises, then get the hell out of the way and let someone with sense govern.

Holyrood is now riven with antagonism and division (Image: Getty)

Imagine for a moment an election which saw political parties respect each other, or even at times admit their rivals had some answers.

What do parties like the SNP and the Scottish Tories really want? Do they want a political landscape where there’s effectively no opposition to their agenda? For isn’t that what destroying your rival means?

Should we not want a parliament with strong opposition? Where an intelligent party holds government to account from a place of integrity rather than petty, childish tribalism?

That’s why Holyrood has failed. Opposition is now about destruction, not pushing government to govern well.

We should want - indeed we need - a political realm filled with diverse voices from right to left, unionist to nationalist. There’s space for everyone. Without space for us all, anger will breed.

The left wing will fail unless there’s an intelligent right wing to keep it steady. The same goes for the right, and for unionists and nationalists.

Again, that’s why we’re in this ruinous situation. No politician cares about improving politics, merely their chances of clinging on to power. And in Scotland, clinging to power means playing to divisiveness, and painting your rival as Satan.

Evidently, these two parties are gleefully locked in this deadly embrace. They’ve thrown such hate at each other for years that changing tack is nigh on impossible.

And, to be honest, both governments have been so dreadful you can see why they hate each other so intensely. Though to be fair, the scale of awfulness varies considerably: the SNP is merely useless, while the Tories are malevolent, cruel and useless.

Scotland needs a functioning SNP and Tory Party. Even if you detest those two parties, you don’t want the alternative should they implode. If the SNP collapses, then watch for the rise of Alba. That would be every unionists nightmare come true.

If the Scottish Tories collapse then watch for the rise of Reform. That would be every nationalists nightmare come true, and every lefty, liberal progressive voters nightmare come true too.

The SNP and the Tories have hollowed out each other and themselves in a cycle of mutual wounding. By doing so they open the door to even more unstable voices entering the political realm.

Yet they can’t see that, because when you’re in the grip of "projection" you become blind to your own faults.