by Rab Bruce’s Spider

Mastodon: @RabBrucesSpider1@Mastodon.Scot

X / Twitter: @RabBrucesSpider

A week certainly is a long time in politics and now we’ve seen the inevitable demise of Humza Yousaf. He inherited a difficult situation which was made worse by the recent charges levelled at the Party’s former Chief Executive, but it must be said that, although he has handled himself well at a personal level, he has never been a dynamic leader who seems intent on progressing the cause of independence at every opportunity. Of course, one way to do this would have been to oversee a series of highly competent policy implementations. On this front, he has signally failed.

I said in a previous blog post that I thought he had little alternative but to end the Bute House Agreement. If he had sat around waiting for the members of the Green Party to decide his fate, he’d have looked extremely weak. Sadly, the way he handled the ending of the Bute House Agreement was never going to do anything except anger the greens, and he or his advisors really ought to have recognised this before delivering the ultimatum. For their part, the greens don’t come out of it well, with some very injudicious comments which clearly stemmed from anger but were hardly the words of dignified politicians. All in all, this ending was a mess on all sides.

In addition, I think it is fair to say that, while most nonTories support environmental issues in principle and often in practice, some of the recent policy bungles have been on issues which were very much part of the Green agenda which was strongly supported by Nicola Sturgeon, leaving Humza Yousaf to inherit some poorly thought out policies. The Gender Reform bill was always highly controversial, and it provided the Westminster Government with an ideal opportunity to flex their constitutional muscles, over-riding the Scottish Parliament’s democratically decided decision. And when you ad in things like support for Freeports, the ongoing ferries problems, the debacle over the Deposit Return Scheme, the mess of the consultation on Highly Protected Marine Areas, you see why so many people have been less than impressed with the performance of the Scottish Government. Sadly, these issues were highlighted by the hostile media and overshadowed the good work done on taking Scotrail back into public ownership, establishing progressive income tax bands, negotiating with unions to prevent strikes in the Health Service, teaching profession and rail network. What Humza Yousaf needed was some really high profile successes in material terms, but these never materialised. Was that down to sheer bad luck, or was his leadership not up to scratch? Everyone will have their own opinions on that.

Sacking the greens left Humza Yousaf in a very difficult position. The arithmetic of the Scottish Parliament is precarious at best, and it was obvious to anyone who was paying attention that the SNP needed either the backing of the Greens or, failing that, Alba’s sole MSP.

I should point out that I am pro-independence but not a member of any political party. I don’t believe political parties should be viewed like football teams where you support them no matter what. However, the Yes movement needs a strong pro-Indy political party to push the move towards becoming a normal, self-governing country. Unfortunately, we no longer seem to have that. What really disappoints me is that it seems that behind the scenes discussions have forced Humza Yousaf to resign because some in his party cannot contemplate any sort of deal with Alba. There are only two conclusions I draw from that. Either some in the SNP have no desire to push hard for independence, or they are so hostile towards Alba that they are willing to sacrifice pushing for independence rather than combine their efforts. I don’t expect them to join in any sort of formal alliance, but where their interests align, all pro-Indy Parties really ought to work towards the same goal. You only need to look back to the Better Together campaign of 2014 to see how our Unionist opponents were more than happy to stand alongside anyone who wanted to preserve the Union, no matter how abhorrent they might otherwise have thought them to be.

So what happens next? Well, it may have already happened by the time you read this. What Scotland needs now is a dynamic, forceful First Minister who focuses on day to day important issues to demonstrate once again that they can provide competent government. With that basic concept established, it is only a short step to persuading voters that we could do even more if we were a normal, self-governing country. Sadly, I’m not convinced that the SNP currently has such a person within its Holyrood ranks.