Humza Yousaf must go!

Useless and dangerous

I read the first part of Steph Brawn's piece in The National today with mounting anger. Steph has been shadowing Humza Yousaf on his much-hyped campaigning tour of the Highlands and Islands and finally got around to broaching the subject of the constitutional issue when she got together with the First Minister at Stornoway Airport. It is no secret that I have long had serious misgivings about Yousaf's ability - or, indeed, willingness - to progress Scotland's cause. There comes a point when, if not allayed, such doubts solidify into a conviction. On reading his responses to questions about restoring Scotland's independence, I became convinced that Humza Yousaf has to go, He has to be removed from the role of First Minister and de facto head of the independence movement as a matter of the utmost urgency. The man is simply not up to the job. He has neither the heart nor the head to lead the fight to restore Scotland's independence.

According to her account, the questions "at the heart" of Steph Brawn's conversation with the First Minister were,

How urgent is independence? How do we break the door down and make Westminster listen? How, after coming so far, do we clear these stubborn hurdles?

Behind the scenes: 48 hours on the campaign trail with Humza Yousaf

Good questions? Perhaps! But the bit about making Westminster listen betrays the colonised mindset which is hobbling Scotland's cause. Bad enough that this mindset should afflict a Scottish political journalist. How much worse, however, that it should be evinced by the individual we rely on to progress Scotland's cause. Yousaf's response to questioning on the constitutional issue demonstrates firstly his reliance on formulaic lines endlessly repeated. When it is put to him that people are impatient for progress towards independence, his predictable response is that he is "the most impatient when it comes to independence". This is a re-jigging of Yousaf's claim to be the 'first activist'. If you are impatient, he is the most impatient. If you are angry, he is the angriest. If you are determined, he is more determined than anyone. It is a clumsy device by which he hopes to both mirror the hopes and concerns of independence supporters and portray himself as being at the forefront of Scotland's cause.

As a general rule, when politicians are makng such an effort to identify with those committed to a cause and present themselves as their leader it is because they are neither. If Humza Yousaf was committed to Scotland's cause, this would be evident from his actions. If he was leading that cause, it would be going somewhere. As it is, his response only prompts further questions. If he is the "most impatient" to see Scotland's independence restored, why has this impatient not been evident during a decade of dawdling and pusillanimous procrastination? How can he truly be the leader of Scotland's cause when it is so apparent that he has no idea which way to go?

But here's the clincher. This is what convinced me Humza Yousaf has to go.

We’ve got to create the political conditions so Westminster can’t say no, in the same way we created the political conditions for the Scottish Parliament. We have to do that again.

There’s no magic number with polls, but at every single election test, we’ve got to show the party of independence is strong and winning. The moment the SNP doesn’t win, the Unionist parties will take that as a mandate for further Westminster rule.

If you wanted to capture in a few sentences the attitude and 'thinking' which has left the independence campaign moribund for ten years you could do a lot worse than quote these words from the man who is supposed to be at the helm of that effort. What hope is there for Scotland's cause when the person who purports to speak for all who aspire to restoring Scotland's rightful constitutional status so casually accepts and affirms the British state's authority to simply say no?

What hope is there for Scotland's cause when our 'leader' is so deluded as to imagine there are any "political conditions" " where Westminster can't say no?

What hope is there for Scotland's cause when the person charged with delivery so obviously prioritises his own party's electoral fortunes?

What hope is there for Scotland's cause when our nation's political leader is so inanely naive as to suppose the British state's colonialist domination of its annexed territory isn't already complete?

Humza Yousaf is not only useless, he is dangerous. His occupation of the roles of First Minister and de facto leader of the independence movement constitutes a real and very serious threat to Scotland's cause.