IN the end, the SNP went for the BOGOF option – buy one, get one free.
There were doubtless myriad reasons why Kate Forbes didn’t want to run against John Swinney. There are also, however, myriad reasons why she perhaps shouldn’t have agreed to be running in tandem with him.
There were heartfelt passages about feeling compelled to hurl his hat ringwards, even after calculating the sacrifices both he and his family were now signed up to. And there were passages about the necessity for economic growth which could have have been uttered by Ms Forbes. I doubt that was an accident.
As we all know, that is not the culture which has recently obtained in the SNP, where dissent was confused with disloyalty and there was precious little in the way of space for free speech lest the speaker in question was monstered by the self-declared ideologically pure., a party with no constituency MSPs or visible vote in the constituency ballots, but 8% in the regional variety. Which speaks of many Scots being prepared to give them their second vote.
Yet even last Thursday, John body-swerved a question about trans women, perhaps forgetting that being disingenuous on that subject was what had derailed many political leaders. Or perhaps not! Mr Swinney, in turn, gives the impression of being a douce Church of Scotland elder, and he is in fact a committed Christian, which will doubtlessHe will find it tricky to dismiss the impression of being a political retread, however, just as David Cameron’s past life has come back to haunt him in his unlikely new incarnation as Rishi Sunak’s Foreign Secretary. Though, in fairness, we can assume that Mr Swinney is unlikely ever to be accused of lobbying on behalf of dodgy financiers.
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