SNP’s invisible man lef t nowhere to hide

THE back-slapping within the self-congratulatory bubble that is the SNP’s conference in Glasgow was interrupted by a sharp jolt of reality yesterday.

Michael Matheson, Justice Secretary, was rocked onto his heels when a mother confronted him with the reality of her daughter’s experience as part of the monolithic Police Scotland.

What should have been a dream job for a bright young woman with a strong sense of civic duty turned into a nightmare.

No one joins the police thinking it’s a cakewalk but facing such pressure that meal and even toilet beaks were foregone, the officer was driven to the brink of mental collapse and quit the force.

Police Scotland is the Frankenstein’s monster the SNP – despite no shortage of warnings – stitched together from the old eight regional forces.

It staggers from crisis to crisis, has lost one chief constable amid rows and recrimination and has one on ‘special leave’ pending a bullying probe. Public faith in the force hangs by a thread and officer morale is plummeting.

Mr Matheson has long been the invisible man of the Scottish Cabinet, happy to hide while pretending the police crisis is not an issue for him, while spouting questionable statistics that purport to show crime at a record low. There was nowhere to hide yesterday, though, and the confrontation with the officer’s mother, an SNP supporter, underscores the disconnect between the top of the party and the wider public.

Ministers talk endlessly of the inputs they are making – hurling money at every crisis that passes over their desks. The public deal with the outcomes: declining services and dream jobs that turn to dust because of structural problems.

Instead of the reform and innovation so desperately required, the SNP can offer only more of the same tired nonsense.

Yesterday Finance Secretary Derek Mackay signalled his intention of take yet more of people’s hard-earned money while today Nicola Sturgeon will – surprise, surprise – declare the end to all our ills is independence. The SNP lost 21 MPs and close to half a million voters at the election. Its credibility and authority are going the same way.