Political action man?

I really didn't want to be writing about John Swinney again today. But I read the report of his BBC Sunday Show interview with Martin Geissler and I just couldn't let it slide. What Swinney said is a salutary lesson to anyone who despite everything, still supposed that the SNP's humiliation in the Hamilton by-election might have been the long-awaited wake-up call for the party's woeful leadership. One short passage from that interview stands out as characterising Swinney, his party, and the pitiful thing that the fight to restore Scotland's independence has become.

My challenge is to make sure that we can turn that aspiration in the public for Scottish independence into a real political action to make sure it happens.

And that comes about by the SNP performing much better, of getting into a commanding position in Scottish politics, and making sure that we can deliver on the expectations and aspirations of the people of Scotland.

I can just see the SNP loyalists getting themselves worked up into a lather at this promise of "real political action". I can hear them now, sneeringly telling those of us who have been demanding a commitment to real political action that we should all just shut up now because we've got what we wanted. But we have not! What we've got it the First Minister saying the words "real political action". As usual, however, he goes on to demonstrate that there is nothing behind the words.

In another quote from the interview, Swinney responded to a question about what would be in the SNP's manifesto for the 2026 Scottish Parliament election.

What should be in our manifesto is the arguments why Scotland should be an independent country, and how we can build the future of our country based on the opportunities of independence.

In other words, the "real political action" Swinney envisages is nothing more than the same tired routine that has been failing Scotland's cause for more than a decade. Selling independence like it's an up-market holiday destination hasn't moved polling on independence support since 2014. The reason is obvious. The SNP is flogging independence like a holiday destination, but as far as we can tell from what they say, there are no transport links to this place. They have plenty to say about how wonderful the destination is. But they tell us nothing about how they plan to get us there. They want people to pay the deposit without knowing how, when, or if they will make the journey. Nobody has been taking them up on this 'offer' for over ten years. But it's all they've got.

Going back to the first quote above, note how Swinney moves seamlessly from talking about "real political action" to ensure independence happens to talking about electoral success for the SNP. It is evident that in his mind they are one and the same. Only the saddest party loyalists and the British media still think of the SNP as synonymous with Scotland's cause.

Listen to this fool as he tells us with a straight face that the SNP must be given a "commanding position in Scottish politics" so they can "deliver" independence.

WE GAVE YOU A COMMANDING POSITION ALREADY, YOU CLOWN! YOU DIDN'T DELIVER! YOU FAILED!

It's as if the bubble wherein dwells the SNP leadership is isolated from the passage of time. In there, it's still 2012/13. What we think of as the 'lost decade' they really have lost. They've erased it from their reality. In their Orwellian rewriting of history, the massive and repeated mandates we have given them just didn't happen. Because it never happened, they never failed to honour those mandates. It's the big reset after every such failure. It's day zero and all the bad stuff didn't happen. All those pages have been torn out of the history books. It's insanity! And they're trying to draw us into their circle of madness!

I had started to think that John Swinney couldn't possibly be more of disappointment than he has been. I was wrong. He keeps on finding new ways to be less. When is the membership going to say enough? Surely, when their leader comes out talking as he has in the wake of an abasement like Hamilton, party member must realise their party is in the hands of idiots. It is perfectly clear to me that Swinney and the rest of the cabal are utterly clueless about how to restore independence. They just don't know what to do. So, they do nothing.

Political action man? My arse!