Scotland

The SNP has never been noted for its capacity for self-reflection. Each and every time it suffers defeat, it plays the card marked victimhood. Dark forces, rather than its own incompetence, are aways to blame when things don’t go to plan. The SNP has reacted to defeat in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election with predictable gracelessness. Perhaps the perfect example of this inability to ask whether the party could have done things differently came in 2014 when the Yes campaign was heavily defeated in the independence referendum. Rather than wondering whether his threadbare plan for secession might have turned voters off, former SNP leader Alex Salmond pointed the finger at both the BBC and the Treasury.

Irony was pronounced dead this morning after Time magazine proclaimed Humza Yousaf as one of its top ten 'trailblazers' around the world. According to the august Bible of liberal America, the flailing First Minister of Scotland is one of the 'next generation leaders' who will 'shape our future'. God help them all. In the simpering, sycophantic prose that Mr S has come to expect from the underwhelming over-educated writers who staff such magazines, Yousaf is praised for his age and ethnicity rather than, er, any substantive achievements from 11 years in public office. The choice of Time cover star is all the more remarkable given that the magazine acknowledges his disastrous record.

For nearly half a century, the Scottish National Party based its independence project on 'Scotland’s Oil' which it claimed had been stolen by England. Now the SNP seems to be saying it wasn’t Scotland’s oil at all and wasn’t even the UK’s to steal. The SNP and their Green coalition partners have discovered that North Sea oil is owned by foreign capitalists and is anyway unusable in the UK. 'Most of this oil will be shipped abroad,' insisted the SNP First Minister, Humza Yousaf, last week 'and then sold back to us at whatever price makes the oil and gas industry most profit'. New fields like Rosebank off Shetland, he says, won’t therefore help reduce energy bills or replace oil and gas imports.

Rishi Sunak is the talk of the Scottish Tory fringe at Conservative party conference — but perhaps not in the way the Prime Minister might hope. Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross wasted no time at all at making a dig at his boss — perhaps a sly retaliation to the fact Rishi Sunak wasn’t able to name even four members of Ross’s shadow cabinet this summer. How very awkward…  ‘I am the final speaker before the Prime Minister comes,’ Ross announced to a gathering crowd, ‘so I have some small housekeeping duties to do…’ ‘As the Prime Minister will be coming up on the stage, I just need to sort this out for you, before he's in the room,’ the Scottish Tory leader continued — before deftly flicking his bendable microphone down to waist height. Ouch.

A common complaint from traditional supporters of the Conservatives is that, after 13 years in power, their party has very little to show for it. There has been little roll-back of New Labour era legislation, or the Blair-Brown equalities agenda, or the expansion of the administrative state and taxpayer-funded third-sector organisations committed to progressive policy outcomes. (Not my priorities but what Tories tell me are theirs.) There is a case to be made that the UK is more politically, culturally and fiscally left than it was when David Cameron took over in 2010. Were it not for Brexit and Rishi’s recent rollback on net zero targets, ministers would have had precious little to say to this weekend’s Tory conference that would be welcomed by the average delegate.

The SNP civil war has returned to the offices of Holyrood and nationalist infighting is only getting more toxic. Veteran politician Fergus Ewing was last night disciplined after months of vocally criticising his party’s policies — and voting against the government during junior minister Lorna Slater’s confidence motion.  Although his punishment has been dished up, the drama isn’t over yet for the Inverness and Nairn MSP. Today he informed reporters that he is still considering whether he will rejoin the SNP after his suspension ends... Could Ewing stand as an independent? Would he defect to Alba, the pro-independence party lead by former first minister Alex Salmond?

Is open debate now too painful for the SNP? Fergus Ewing, one of the party’s longest serving (and most outspoken) politicians has tonight been suspended for a week after criticising his own government’s ministers and policies. The disciplinary action comes after a series of statements Ewing made in recent months attacking the direction of the SNP — which in some cases resulted in his voting against government itself.

'I will lead by example in adhering to this Code and knowing it is an incredible privilege to serve the people of Scotland. I know that Ministers will do likewise,' is how First Minister, Humza Yousaf, ends the foreword to the latest edition of the Scottish Ministerial Code, published in July.   Just a couple of months later and Yousaf appears to have potentially broken the Code, which stipulates ministers must 'give accurate and truthful information to the Parliament, correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity'.   As revealed in an investigation by These Islands, Yousaf made a false statement in relation to Scotland's renewables energy capacity back in June.

When the Scottish writer Gillian Philip posted a tweet in 2020, she could not have imagined the devastating consequences that would follow. At the time, her fellow author JK Rowling was under relentless attack for her view that a conflict exists between women’s right to use single sex spaces, such as refuges, and moves to allow trans people to use such facilities on the basis of self-identification. Philip shared the Harry Potter creator’s concerns about male-bodied individuals accessing places set up to support women traumatised by men’s violence and added the hashtag #ISTANDWITHROWLING to her Twitter bio. And then her world came crashing down. The online mob came for Philip, denouncing her as a bigot, as a vicious transphobe.

During the SNP leadership contest, something unusual happened: religion became a talking point in Scotland. Comments made by leadership hopeful Kate Forbes, a member of the Free Church of Scotland, on issues like gay marriage, abortion and having children out of wedlock, dominated the newspapers. But it became clear, after the dust settled – and Humza Yousaf defeated Forbes – just how unusual this discussion was. Even people of faith find it hard to talk about religion. This summer, when reflecting back on the leadership contest, Forbes said 'there is a fear which characterises right now any discussions about faith'. But a Scotland which does not reflect upon the role religion has played in its cultural and political history is doing itself a disservice.

Scotland’s first census results have finally been released: just 444 days after England managed to publish theirs. The once-a-decade count of the population was disastrous at worst and botched at best. As the first deadline for returning the census loomed last April, some 700,000 households – a quarter of the country – were threatened with £1,000 fines for not completing it. It had taken over a month to reach a 74 per cent response rate. Eleven years ago it took just ten days. Now that the results are in, the final response rate was 89 per cent: well short of the official target of 94 and the 97 per cent achieved in England and Wales. When the first deadline was extended, the SNP did not apologise.

Whatever else down the centuries, at least the Scots always had their sense of humour. But now, in Humza Yousaf's Scotland, even that seems to be under threat. For BBC Scotland has now pulled satirical cartoons of politicians from social media, following criticism from members of Yousaf's government. The broadcaster has now announced it is reviewing the future of Radio Scotland's Noising Up, following a furore of fury from thin-skinned nationalists. A tale as old as time... Central to the controversy was the depiction of Lorna Slater, the Green co-leader and a key plank of the Yousaf regime. In one clip satirising Slater, who grew up in Canada, she was labelled the 'minister for green skills, circular economy, biodiversity, short haul flights and maple syrup.

There is no problem in Scottish society for which the SNP will not try to apportion at least some of the blame to ‘Westminster’. The brave Scottish nationalist does his best in the face of endless obstacles placed in his way by malign unionist forces. But only independence will allow him the freedom to address the vast array of pressing issues, both social and economic, facing the oppressed people of North Britain. Reality has just called the nationalists’ bluff Of course, the SNP’s determination to hold the UK government to account for things over which it has no control is utterly cynical. But that’s nationalism, for you.