Scotland must have General Election
After the last couple of days, I can certainly agree with that old adage that a week is a long time in politics.
We have seen the unilateral dumping of the Bute House agreement between the SNP and the Greens by Humza Yousaf.
We have seen two separate motions of confidence brought against the First Minister and the Scottish Government.
We have watched Yousaf attempt to scramble together support from Ash Regan, and by extension Alex Salmond, to save his position as First Minister despite the fact the damage was already done.
And then in a flash he realised his own actions had led to an untenable position and it all became a question of who would replace Yousaf in the centre of this chaotic government.
As the focus now turns to Yousaf’s successor, it’s beginning to feel like Scottish politics has gone back in time.
It was just over a year ago that Nicola Sturgeon’s sudden departure as First Minister sparked an SNP leadership contest which dominated the focus of the government for months on end.
Now we are back once again watching the SNP talk to itself about itself instead of focusing on what really matters to the country.
And all the while, one in seven Scots are still stuck on an NHS waiting list.
The scale of delayed discharge is still crippling our NHS because our social care workforce is overstretched and depleted.
Green targets, which certainly were not going to be met, have now been scrapped.
And vast amounts of public money has been wasted when Scots are feeling the pressures of the cost-of-living crisis.
Whilst the SNP has been focusing on its inner party chaos, Scottish Labour has been calling for change with a Scottish Parliament election.
John Swinney will presumably be crowned as First Minister next week and he will be the second unelected First Minister of Scotland in as many years.
There won’t even be an internal vote of SNP members to choose him.
The SNP are making a good job of matching the Tories for leadership chaos but when Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister without an election the SNP were crystal clear about what they thought should happen next.
Angus Robertson called it “an affront to democracy”.
Nicola Sturgeon said it was “unthinkable” for Sunak to be PM without consulting the country and said that leadership couldn’t be a “revolving door”.
What is the difference other than that the SNP now find themselves in the same inconvenient situation as the Tories?
The reality is that the SNP and the Tories are becoming more alike by the day: two parties mired in scandal, that have frittered away any credibility they may have once had and are now just desperately trying to hold onto power.
Having a Scottish Parliament election would give the people a say on whether they want another SNP First Minister or if they want a new government that’s ready to take the challenges facing our country seriously.
What do the SNP offer right now? It certainly isn’t a plan to rectify the problems with our NHS or our economy.
They’re offering Swinney, someone closely attached to the last 17 years of failing SNP governance and the last 40 years right at the heart of the SNP machine.
The man who broke the public finances, deleted his covid WhatsApps and was the worst education secretary we have had. What will Swinney bring that’s different to Nicola Sturgeon or Humza Yousaf? It seems likely that he will bring “continuity”.
Anyone who has paid attention to the SNP’s record should know that continuity is not what the country needs.
It needs change – the change my party offers.
It needs an election.