People should be given a say on who is the new UK PM
Last week, Liz Truss did the inevitable and finally resigned as Prime Minister.
It is probably not an exaggeration to say that no UK politician has done so much damage in so little time.
In just 44 days, Liz Truss managed to crash the economy, send mortgage rates skyrocketing and, but for the intervention of the Bank of England, would have forced the collapse of UK pension funds.
It is little wonder that her popularity plummeted among the public.
Save, that is, for her Scottish Conservative cheerleaders, who were quick to berate the Scottish Government for not emulating her disastrous economic policies.
Rather than focusing on how best to serve the public, the Tories have inevitably turned their attention to picking Liz Truss’successor. Unsurprisingly, this has been a wholly unedifying ordeal.
At the time of this writing, Boris Johnson has just announced that he will not be standing to be Prime Minister.
This, despite a frenzied attempt by his supporters to sneak him back into Downing Street.
In his statement confirming his decision not to stand, Boris Johnson claimed that he had the support of 102 MPs, which would have allowed him to feature on the leadership ballot.
The fact that over 100 Tory MPs would back a disgraced, law-breaking liar like Boris Johnson tells you everything you need to know about the state of the Conservative Party.
Indeed, we were faced with the ridiculous spectacle of Tory MPs who, just six weeks ago, had called on Boris Johnson to resign now publicly endorsing his return to office.
Their hypocrisy is scarcely believable.
As we now head for our third Prime Minister since the 2019 election, the two most recent of whom will be entirely unelected by the public, it is clearer now than ever that a general election is required.
The Conservative Party has fallen into complete disrepute and can no longer be trusted to govern.
From austerity, to Brexit, to the cost-of-living crisis, to the mini-budget, the Tories have hammered Scotland with unpopular and hugely damaging policies for over twelve years.
They have treated the UK like their personal plaything by indulging in their own ideological navel-gazing and internal power struggles at the expense of good governance.
Even a cursory glance at the polls shows that the public have simply had enough, with huge majority support for an immediate general election and a consensus that the Tories would face a historic routing at the ballot box.
If the Tories had any self-respect, or respect for the people they claim to serve, they would put themselves out of their misery and let the people have their say.
For our part, the SNP will continue to push hard for a general election for the good of the Scottish public.
It is becoming clearer by the day that we simply cannot trust the Tories with the levels of power.