Euan McColm

There is something rather odd about the SNP’s decision to attack Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer over the issue of university tuition fees. Higher education is, after all, a devolved matter. No prime minister, whether Labour or Conservative, will ever have a say in how Scotland delivers for students. Despite this, the SNP is currently focussing attention on Starmer’s position vis-a-vis the cost of going to university. In 2020, Starmer promised to scrap tuition fees in England —  now, according to the Nats, he is 'set to abandon his promise'.  So keen is the social media-savvy SNP to see this message spread that at the start of last month, it pinned it to the top of the party’s Twitter feed — and it's still there.

When it comes to dealings with their political opponents, Scottish nationalists have only one setting: furious outrage. No matter the subject, Scotland’s ruling parties – the SNP and the Greens – may be depended upon to move swiftly to apoplexy. Everything the Conservatives and Labour say, no matter how benign, must be twisted and reshaped into an attack on Scotland. Good faith is an alien concept. Nat attacks on evil Unionists and their dastardly plans and plots grow ever weaker because they’re so damned predictable. But the problem with being permanently angry is that, well, it gets rather exhausting for everyone, doesn’t it? Nat attacks on evil Unionists and their dastardly plans and plots grow ever weaker because they’re so damned predictable.

In power, Alex Salmond was, according to the senior lawyer who successfully defended him against a series of sex charges, 'an objectionable bully'. Out of power, he breezed into a new career as a presenter on the Kremlin-funded propaganda channel, RT. He maintained his relationship with the broadcaster until the day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Salmond deserves to be yesterday’s man. He’s utterly discredited, both morally and politically – and yet, he’s back. The current crisis in the SNP, still under investigation by Police Scotland as a result of fraud allegations, has given Salmond an in. Suddenly, every TV channel and radio station in the country wants to hear from Nicola Sturgeon’s mentor-turned-enemy.

Nobody ever accused former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon of possessing a great sense of humour but, surely, she must be joking. Writing in the Guardian about proposed justice reforms in Scotland, Sturgeon has blamed deep political divisions for some taking fixed positions before examining the evidence. This is like an arsonist explaining that while, yes, they may have petrol-bombed that Pizza Hut, they hadn’t expected the place to burn down And then the killer punchline. On the issue of polarisation, Sturgeon says she had ‘underestimated the depth of the problem’. This is like an arsonist explaining that while, yes, they may have petrol-bombed that Pizza Hut, they hadn’t expected the place to burn down.

The SNP has spent a lot of time and energy in recent years telling voters in Scotland there’s no difference between the Labour and Conservative parties. Arrant nonsense, of course, but there’s a market for that sort of thing among the nationalists’ more excitable supporters, many of whom happily buy into the idea of Labour as 'red Tories'. There is, however, an inconsistency to the SNP’s line of attack. Each time a General Election rumbles into view, the nationalists may be depended upon to recognise differences between its Unionist opponents. Generally, this manifests itself as talk about which party it would be willing to support in the event the election resulted in a hung parliament.

The campaign by furious activists to destroy Edinburgh’s reputation as a great crucible of critical thinking continues apace. The home of the Enlightenment is under sustained attack. Students and – shame on them – staff at Edinburgh University have, for a second time, blocked the screening of the film Adult Human Female on campus. To allow the viewing and discussion of this documentary would, claim members of the mob, make the university an unsafe space. Not to be outshone in this parade of idiocy, The Stand comedy club subsequently cowered before the screeching fury of gender ideology campaigners and cancelled a show due to take place during this year’s Edinburgh Festival featuring the SNP MP Joanna Cherry.

When 20-year-old Francis Auld walked free from Glasgow’s High Court in December 1992, there was widespread belief that a monster had got away with murder. The evidence he had killed 19-year-old Amanda Duffy had seemed compelling: the pair had been seen together in the Lanarkshire town of Hamilton shortly before her death. A deep bite-mark on the victim’s breast had, he admitted, been inflicted by Auld. The accused’s defence - that he had left her, shortly before the time of her death as established by a post-mortem examination, in the company of another man - was flimsy. Auld walked from the dock not because the jury found him 'not guilty' but because a majority agreed the case against him was 'not proven'.

First Minister Humza Yousaf met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last night for the first time since he took over from Nicola Sturgeon almost a month ago. Amongst other things, Yousaf 'raised concerns' about 'UK government attacks on devolution', including recent comments from a certain Lord David Frost in the Telegraph, who wrote: 'Not only must no more powers be devolved to Scotland, it’s time to reverse the process.' But it's pro-Union politicians who are really up in arms after the Tory peer's calls that some of the Scottish government's devolved powers be rolled back. The former Brexit negotiator's clumsy intervention has been a lifeline to Yousaf in the middle of his crisis.

After decades in the shadows, members of the Scottish Labour party are back out in the open, their confidence growing. Emboldened first by polls signalling the very real prospect of Sir Keir Starmer becoming the next prime minister, Scottish Labour politicians now watch with tastefully concealed glee as the SNP – under the stewardship of new leader Humza Yousaf – sinks into deepening crisis. The mood in the party – which is led in Scotland by 40-year-old Anas Sarwar – has, says a senior source, changed completely. 'It's like night and day. When Anas Sarwar became leader in 2021, people might sidle up to him at events and whisper good wishes, now they’re happy to be open about their support.