New captain, same old motley crew
THERE we have it. John Swinney is the new SNP leader and also now First Minister.
Mr Swinney believes he is going to restore the SNP’s flagging credibility and election-winning ways.
According to him, their troubles over the past couple of years are merely due to a lack of ‘cohesion’ in the party ranks and misguided pubic ‘perception’, so ‘honest John’ announced he is going to fix all that by bringing warring factions in the party together, improving internal discussion and engaging more with the public.
There wasn’t even a mention of the SNP’s failures in office.
We may have a new First Minister of sorts, but we still have the same old motley crew of SNP ministers standing shoulder to shoulder beside him.
That means we will still have ferries which don’t work, record-breaking NHS waiting lists, long overdue upgrades to dangerous roads, falling education standards and a widening attainment gap, a police service in crisis, dilapidated town and city centres with boarded-up shops and crumbling roads, a stagnant economy and a burgeoning and wasteful public sector we can’t afford. These are the public’s priorities.
Most of those likely to be in Mr Swinney’s cabinet have already spent years as inept ministers, failing in one portfolio after another in a form of musical chairs so as to avoid accountability and blame.
What makes Mr Swinney think he and those inept ministers will suddenly become competent and able to fix all those problems ?
ALAN WYLLIE, Largs, Ayrshire.
JOHN Swinney has said he doesn’t want a pact with the Greens and that he wants to work with the Unionist parties.
Really? An SNP First Minister who is hell-bent on taking Scotland out of the Union?
The same Mr Swinney is having the metaphorical gun pointed at his head by Scotland’s biggest traitors the Greens who were threatening non cooperation before Swinney was even sworn in. Meanwhile we still have the long-running Branchform investigation trying to find out which SNP ‘politicians’ have had fingers in which pies. The whole scene is a bit early for Christmas but what a script for a pantomime.
IAN BALLOCH, Grangemouth, Stirlingshire.
IT WILL be very interesting to see which government post John Swinney gives to Kate Forbes.
It could, of course, be finance, which she has done previously, and it seems likely that there will be a vacancy there with Shona Robison presumably, and deservedly, on the way out.
But perhaps Swinney will choose a cruel and unusual punishment for his erstwhile rival. He could gift her the poisoned chalice that is the health brief. That would keep her very busy indeed, with no time for mischief-making.
I would prefer her to become education minister, where she has had sensible things to say about pupils needing to learn that hard work and perseverance are the answer, not dumbing down. She might even be prepared to eject the ‘LGBT champions’ and other Stonewall nonsense from our schools. Now that would be a fine result
JILL STEPHENSON, Edinburgh.
JOHN Swinney has been in the SNP for a very long time, and has never stood out as someone with real ability.
It’s too late to see any change now.
J. BLACK, Broughty Ferry, Angus.