Time to move on and put rebuilding top of the agenda

THE Scottish Government’s investigation into Alex Salmond has become one of the most dismal episodes in our political history.

Two women made complaints of sexual misconduct about Salmond when he was first minister.

The least they could have expected was the government examining their concerns in a thorough fashion.

Devising a process that was fair to them and Salmond should have been a straightforward task for the civil service.

The reality is the government screwed up the investigation, cost the taxpayer more than £600,000 and let down the women.

The government’s shocking refusal to concede the case early was made worse when it refused to hand over its legal advice to the Holyrood Inquiry.

Blame has rightly been heaped on the government and these mistakes must never be made again.

Yet while the focus of MSPs should have been on learning lessons from the fiasco, the Tories turned a government failure into a political circus.

Douglas Ross’s party backed a no confidence vote in Nicola Sturgeon before the Holyrood Inquiry even published its report. They found her guilty ahead of two separate investigations finishing their work.

The focus of Ross and Ruth Davidson was not on the two women let down by the government but on the woman in Bute House they wanted to bring down.

The fact that the Tory attempt at toppling Sturgeon did not attract the support of another party speaks volumes. It was politics at its worst.

The country, which for the last year has been in the grip of a pandemic, yearns for a positive vision of the future.

Our care services have been badly exposed by Covid and urgent reforms are required.

We desperately need to rebuild our public services through recovery plans for schools and hospitals.

Child poverty is rising and we need MSPs to use Holyrood’s social security powers to boost family incomes.

And we need a laser-like focus on sustainable economic growth, which can only be achieved by government supporting businesses and workers.

The last thing we need is our politicians obsessing about what Sturgeon said to Salmond at a meeting three years ago.

Two inquiries have been held into this fiasco and MSPs have refused to remove Sturgeon from her job. It is time to move on.

Scotland’s progressive parties should now unite and shut out the gutter Tories.

We need to open a new chapter in our country’s journey – with the Conservatives slumped on the sidelines.