Separatism must not come before schools

NICOLA STURGEON is clever, personable, hard-working and – even if this paper believes her convictions are utterly wrong – a genuine believer in the cause of separation.

She is not, however, infallible and in this past torrid week we have seen her drop the ball. Make no mistake. The scandal of potentially dangerous buildings that has closed 17 Edinburgh schools – and as we report today, sent inspectors in to hospitals – has been badly handled.

It is understandable that a low-calibre politician such as Education Secretary Angela Constance should scurry for cover as soon as a big problem rears its head. Her £100,000 ministerial salary notwithstanding, she pressed on with her personal re-election campaign even as thousands of pupils faced locked school gates and parents battled to source – and pay for – extra childcare. Meanwhile, a supine BBC focused on how many children would be ‘back in education’ within days, glossing over the shambles many parents face on Monday morning when children will have to be bussed around the gridlocked city to alternative venues.

Miss Sturgeon’s mistake was to cling firmly to her role as partisan SNP leader and not act as First Minister in the best interest of Scots generally.

She rapidly called for an inquiry, which was more a stick with which to beat Labour – architects of the PFI schemes which built the defective buildings – than any sort of a solution to the immediate crisis.

Given, as we revealed this week, the SNP’s inspection regime passed all the suspect buildings, we can now expect any inquiry to go on the back burner.

And rather than sideline the ineffectual Miss Constance to take personal charge of the schools chaos, Miss Sturgeon turned her attention back to the SNP’s Holyrood campaign.

This week we have seen politicians at their buck-passing, self-serving worst.

Amidst all their selfish grandstanding and finger-pointing, issues that truly matter to the public are ignored. We report today too that the government’s own education quango is sounding a warning over slipping primary education standards.

As John MacLeod argues elsewhere on this page, Scots are weary of politicians unwilling or unable to raise their sights beyond narrow party advantage and undertake the heavy lifting required to improve life for constituents.

This week has shown us that egregious politicians such as Miss Constance survive when the people at the top of their party are willing to accept their low standards.