First among sequels: Sturgeon continues to dominate... thanks to Brexit and Boris
2019 was a year of rows over Brexit, a new bid for a second independence referendum, a tale of two prime ministers and a General Election. Tom Gordon assesses its impact
NICOLA STURGEON and the SNP dominated Scottish politics in 2019.
Despite a series of failures that would have derailed many a government, the First Minister ended the year on a high, leaving the other Holyrood parties looking like bedraggled also-rans.
Ms Sturgeon has always been blessed by unpopular opponents, but this year her lucky streak got even stronger.
The rising stink from Brexit, Westminster and Boris Johnson was enough to lift her clear of her own record on health, education, and the economy.
After two elections in seven months, the SNP leader emerged the most assured player on the national stage.
Yet 2019 all started so badly for her.
January had barely got under way when, at the country’s highest court for judicial review, the Scottish Government was humiliated by the man who once led it.
Alex Salmond won a civil case after forcing Ms Sturgeon’s officials to admit they had royally messed up an in-house investigation into claims of sexual misconduct that had been made against him the previous year.
On January 8, the Government side conceded the process had been unfair, unlawful and tainted by apparent bias because the official tasked with investigating the claims had been in prior contact with the two accusers.
That contaminated the whole exercise. The Government would later pay out more than £500,000 towards Mr Salmond’s legal costs.
It got worse for Ms Sturgeon when the opposition whipped up a Holyrood committee to examine where it all went wrong, and why she unaccountably kept in touch with him during the probe.
The other parties made little secret of their desire to string the process out to the 2021 Holyrood election to keep Ms Sturgeon on the back foot.
But then Mr Salmond returned to court in very different circumstances.
On January 24, he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court and was charged with 14 offences, including attempted rape and sexual assault. He strenuously denied any wrongdoing.
The Holyrood inquiry was put on ice. Also in January, it emerged two patients had died at the £842 million Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow after contracting a fungal infection linked to pigeon droppings.
The QEUH would stay in the headlines for the rest of the year, a gathering cloud over Scotland’s largest health board and a scandal that still has a long way to run.
The annual Snp-green Budget pact saw Holyrood dip a toe into one of its taboo powers – the ability to invent taxes.
A tourist tax and a workplace parking tax were the result. The latter saw the other parties, especially the Tories, rev themselves into a frenzy. The din over a £10 a week parking bay levy was all out of proportion to its impact.
Far more significant, yet less noisily received, was the failure of SNP ministers to deliver the devolved welfare system they had demanded for years.
In February, they admitted they had not fully assumed responsibility until 2024, more than three years late.
Critics said it made of mockery of the party’s previous promise to deliver independence in a fleeting 18 months.
In April, Ms Sturgeon lobbed some red meat to SNP members on the eve of the party’s conference by announcing a generic Referendums Bill, the vehicle for a second independence referendum if Westminster granted the missing power, and for an Irish-style Citizens Assembly to chew Scotland’s long-term problem.
But it wasn’t enough to head off the grassroots revolt that would dominate the gathering.
As the SNP leadership tried to push the party’s Growth Commission through conference, activists and past and present MPS resisted Andrew Wilson’s hairshirt economic blueprint for independence, with currency the focus.
In a rare defeat, Ms Sturgeon’s plan to cling on to the pound indefinitely was replaced by the membership’s demand for a new Scottish currency “as soon as practicable” after a Yes vote.
The Unionist parties hoped it would clamp the wheels of the SNP bandwagon.
But, not for the last time in 2019, they were sorely mistaken.
In May, the SNP triumphed in the European elections on a strident anti-brexit platform.
The party improved from two of Scotland’s six MEPS to three, with the Libdems, Tories and Brexit party getting one each. Despite being in its 13th year of government, the SNP managed to lift its share of the vote by 8.8 per cent to 37.8%.
Even more stunning was the collapse in Scottish Labour’s vote. Doubly handicapped by Jeremy Corbyn and Richard Leonard, the party lost almost two-thirds of its vote and both its MEPS to trail in fifth on 9.3%. The result screamed out for an end to Labour’s Brexit havering and its weak leadership, but it didn’t happen.
The only resignation was by Labour MSP Neil Findlay, who had been in charge of the Scottish campaign, who left the party’s front bench and said he wouldn’t stand for re-election in 2021, citing “endless internal battles”.
Ms Sturgeon used the aftermath of the election to announce, on a visit to Dublin, that she wanted to hold Indyref2 in the second half of 2020.
Logistically, the date made no sense. There would not be enough time to translate a Yes vote into independence before the 2021 election came along.
But politically, by putting a date out there, the First Minister teed up the fight she knows will fuel the 2021 campaign.
The election also led to a change in leadership for the Tories – two, in fact.
The day after the EU vote, which she had assured the nation would never take place as the UK would be out on March 29, Theresa May finally croaked her resignation statement in Downing Street.
Unable to get Brexit done, her fractious party had done her in instead.
Her departure triggered a fateful contest to find a new Tory leader.
Boris Johnson’s win was never in doubt.
In July, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman cancelled the opening of the new £150m Sick Children’s Hospital in Edinburgh at five days’ notice after tests found inadequate ventilation systems had been installed. There were now hospital scandals at both ends of the M8.
In August, politicians seemed to take over the Edinburgh Fringe, with Ms Sturgeon, Ruth Davidson and John Mcdonnell all popping up, the latter to announce Labour would not stand in the way of Indyref2 if it won power.
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard, who had vowed to resist Indyref2, was humiliated, then rapidly toed the shadow chancellor’s line.
It was a necessary calculation by UK Labour – it knew it wouldn’t be returning many Scottish MPS and needed SNP votes to govern as a minority – but it proved an early gift for PM Johnson.
Ms Davidson saved her grand finale for the week the festival left town.
Resigning after eight years as the Scottish Tories’ most successful leader, she cited the demands of a young family, but also her “conflict” over Brexit.
As she had backed three different candidates against him to be leader, that was code for Mr Johnson.
She used her new-found freedom to become mired in a self-inflicted row over a £2,000-a-day job at a London public relations firm, leaving many to wonder how she had acquired her reputation as a “different kind of Tory” in the first place.
August also saw Ferguson Marine in Port Glasgow go into administration after a long dispute between the yard owners and the state firm behind Calmac
Ruth Davidson resigned ... and used her newfound freedom to become mired in a row over a £2,000-a-day job at a PR firm