The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Yousaf must win back disaffected SNP supporters or they will turn to Labour
It’s good to see fellow Courier columnist Kevin Pringle appointed as the first minister’s “official spokesman”. Let’s hope that, having appointed someone who understands the power and importance of lucid communication, the people paying his wages will actually listen to him.
It is a clear indication that the Scottish Government knows it needs a serious professional in the post.
And it would be an abdication of responsibility not to give the new head of communications and strategic political adviser full latitude to do the job that he’s been hired for.
In a world where coherent communication is vital, this is not a role for wet-behind-the-ears enthusiasts and amateurs with social media accounts.
But that has been the vibe since Humza Yousaf was appointed.
Scotland is in a parlous state. And the current SNP administration is facing ambush at every corner from political foes who sense blood in the air.
Kevin has been there before and knows the road well.
This time round though, he has inherited a novice first minister in Humza Yousaf and a party that is less sure-footed than it once appeared.
Those who have become used to exercising untrammelled power must be prepared to listen to advice they might not like.
Wise counsel doesn’t tell the paymaster what it wants to hear. It tells it what it needs to hear.
And that can be uncomfortably disconcerting for people who have grown used to calling the shots unhindered.
Pringle was Alex Salmond’s adviser when he led the SNP close to achieving independence.
Whatever Salmond’s faults, he understood that politics is a broad tent which has to be capable of accommodating many views.
In recent times the SNP and their partners the Greens have come to resemble the last days of Stalin when anyone with an alternative viewpoint faced banishment to the outer reaches.
A political party needs discipline but it also requires humanity and a soul.
And the current breach in the independence movement is evident in the rise of the breakaway Alba party now led by Salmond.
Many others have lost faith in the SNP. It is a breach that needs to be healed if there’s to be a realistic chance of building a revitalised independence campaign.
Peace overtures must be made to those excommunicated and feeling betrayed.
If not, the movement will fail to recapture the heights it previously occupied.
While the SNP falters, Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party is waiting in the wings.
It has revived the spirits of many in Scotland, who now sense there may finally be hope of jettisoning the Conservatives from Downing Street.
How Pringle tackles the absolute drivel emanating from some SNP mouthpieces suggesting Labour and the Tories are the same creature may be instructive.
Many of us who left Labour, repelled by the worst of Conservative policies and attracted by a possible fairer Scotland, know instinctively that such a claim is bigoted nonsense.
And it leaves those issuing it looking like fools.
The Labour Party has changed, as have all parties – including the SNP. But deep within the soul of those with enough brains to recognise the truth there still lies the soul of the movement which gave us the NHS and the welfare state.
It is a movement which gave our forebears hope and respite from grinding poverty and illness.
And that great legacy may still fuel a party which has growing appeal.
Eighty years ago the Beveridge Report became the founding document of the modern welfare state, aimed at eradicating the evils of want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness.
These still exist today. And if Labour commits to tackling them UK-wide, the party may still appeal to enough Scots who put the common good before a flag and the still ill-defined economic policies and promises of the SNP.
************************************* When will fans learn?
In more than 30 years covering football for the BBC I never failed to be astonished at how otherwise intelligent folk could be so easily deluded that those who made a living from the sport would share the same emotional investment that they did in their clubs.
The recent departure of the Celtic manager to Spurs in London at four times his salary, now worth around £36 million over four years, has enraged many fans of the Parkhead club.
They naively thought Australian Ange Postecoglu “got” their club and the history
of its foundation by Brother Walfrid to provide dinner tables for the poor of the east end of Glasgow.
Ange’s story as an immigrant from Greece to Oz seems to have convinced many of them that theirs was a unique bond that conjoined them, given Celtic’s immigrant Irish roots.
The truth, however, is that players and managers in any sport are professional gladiators and hired hands.
Just like most of us, they’ll work for the highest bidder and where the conditions are best for them and their families and their careers.
Yet time after time football fans fall for the kissing of the badge and pledges of lifelong loyalty.
While the SNP falters, Sir Keir Starmer’s party is waiting in the wings