IGNOMINIOUS, DELUSIONAL, ABYSMAL. LET’S END HIS TOXIC TENURE – FOR ALL OUR SAKES

HUMZA Yousaf’s declaration, at the end of his press conference ditching the Bute House Agreement, that ‘today marks a new beginning for the SNP government’ was a perfect example of his unerring powers of political judgment. Unerringly wrong, that is.

It’s now odds-on that Humza Yousaf will not be First Minister by the end of the week. Which might be a sort of new beginning, but presumably not what he had in mind. He probably also didn’t mean it was the beginning of the end for the SNP government, but it looks a lot like it to everyone else.

All the speculation, commentary, and back-of-the-envelope calculations about Holyrood arithmetic are beside the point now. Humza Yousaf is finished. His time is up. He’s toast.

The idea that he might cling on after a tied vote – which, after the position taken by every opposition party except the discredited Alex Salmond’s Alba, looks like the very best he could manage – is for the birds. Even then, the bird would have to be Monty Python’s Dead Parrot.

If he did secure that feeble outcome, thanks to Alba’s one vote and the convention that the Presiding Officer opts for the status quo, he would lose all credibility with many in his own party. They’ve already said so.

He lost any credibility he might have had outside the blinkered ranks of the SNP long ago, if you don’t count the Greens who, now they have been dumped, can’t wait to get their revenge.

His brilliant tactic to win the vote of no confidence that I tabled on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives last week was to write a begging letter asking opposition parties to save his job. Unsurprisingly, that hasn’t gone down well.

THE hallmark of Humza Yousaf’s career has been to brush aside any objections or suggestions and to rubbish and insult anyone who didn’t share his single-minded obsession with breaking up the UK.

Yet the same man who was focused a few days ago on making Scotland a ‘Tory-free’ zone was now writing me a letter asking for help shoring up his personal, abysmal position. That’s not just humiliating and embarrassing, it’s yet another indictment of his credibility. If he thinks it’s leadership, the prospect of him continuing in office is terrifying.

Humza Yousaf has brought this ignominious end on himself. Despite his dreadful record in successive ministries – which along the way gave us ferries with painted-on windows, the worst NHS figures on record and a Hate Crime Act that threatens to make Scotland an international laughing stock – he failed upward into the top job, though he didn’t even manage to convince half of his own party in the leadership election.

He did so as the only candidate for the SNP leadership to defend the alliance with the Greens, and by promising ‘continuity’ with Nicola Sturgeon’s agreement with them, which he insisted was ‘worth its weight in gold’ – right up until he dropped it.

Everyone else could see that the Greens – a group who actually think economic growth is a bad thing, and who should never have been anywhere near government – were a toxic liability. The fact that Humza Yousaf can’t is damning.

Even after his screeching U-turn, he wasn’t complaining about their influence on policy. He finally acted only out of fear that he was the one about to be dumped.

He still hasn’t disowned the SNP-Green programme that he presided over and defended.

The abandonment of oil and gas jobs. The failure to make any progress on the desperately needed dualling of the A9 and A96.

The botched deposit return scheme. The rent controls that have created soaring prices, a huge fall in available accommodation and the declaration of housing emergencies in our two largest cities and other council areas.

We haven’t heard a word of apology for the reckless gender self-ID Bill that endangers women and girls. Or for the abandonment of rural Scotland and the Highly Protected Marine Areas proposal which would have destroyed our fishing industry.

ACCORDING to Humza Yousaf, though, the Bute House Agreement has ‘run its course’, it was great while it lasted, and all those disasters are excellent reasons why he should now be allowed to cling on to his job. That is utterly delusional.

But then Humza Yousaf has spent his career consumed by fantasies about independence and in stubborn denial about his own inadequacies as a minister.

He’s done that while ignoring Scotland’s real priorities, obvious economic facts, and the stark evidence of the damage he and his party have inflicted.

The whole parliament, except for his followers, has reached its own agreement over Bute House – Humza Yousaf shouldn’t be in it for a day longer.

The Conservatives’ motion of no confidence this week can end his time in office, something many across Scotland will welcome.

‘Prospect of him continuing in office is terrifying’