Sturgeon's baleful ghost

While I am familiar with the weariness Lesley Riddoch feels. I don’t imagine an inquiry into the SNP’s financial management would make me feel any less disheartened. I can’t think of anything the SNP leadership might do to regain my trust. The time for repair is past. Too much damage has been done. As Lesley says:

Will things change in the years ahead? I hae ma doots.

Aye! Me tae! It’s not just weariness I feel. There’s hopelessness as well. Looking back, it’s possible to see things that might have been done. As Lesley says:

But it didn’t happen.

Looking to the future, it’s less easy to see what could be done. Supposing there was something, as Lesley says:

But it likely won’t happen.

I shall shortly be joined in my weariness and hopelessness by the many people who voted for the SNP back in May because they believed John Swinney when he talked of guaranteeing a referendum and immediate action to progress Scotland’s cause in the new parliament. As the months drag on with no sign of the promises being honoured, more and more people will realise they were duped. There will be a lot of resentment.

Robin McAlpine seems to be as devoid of hope for the SNP as I am.

I have no advice anymore. It is too late. What will come will come and it isn’t entirely certain the SNP will remain a credible fighting force at the end of it. Sturgeon poisoned the SNP. Swinney refused to drive it to the doctor. It may be their political epitaphs.

It no longer makes sense to ask what the SNP should do. It only makes sense to ask what they should have done. Last week, when Robin was still offering advice to the SNP, he told John Swinney that he should “put clear water between him and the Sturgeon era (best as he could)“. That was sound counsel. Robin is spot on when he says that Nicola Sturgeon has “poisoned the SNP”. It would have been good if Swinney had been able to flush that poison away. It would not have been easy. The toxin is everywhere. I can understand why John Swinney might be reluctant to face the wrath of the personality cult that still surrounds Sturgeon and shows no sign of abating.

Swinney was never the man for that job. One way he could have distanced himself very effectively from Sturgeon would have been to repudiate the Section 30 process that she dubbed the ‘gold standard’ of democracy. There would have been some backlash from the Sturgeon cult. But he would have won a lot of support from the independence movement. Even I might have considered rejoining the SNP if John Swinney had signalled that he was open to suggestions as to how Scotland’s cause could be progressed.

Rather than closing the book on the Sturgeon era, however, Swinney made it the user manual for his incumbency. It’s like she never went away. Swinney has not had a single new idea since he became First Minister. His ‘strategy for independence’ was simply a rerun of 2014, and now that he’s been told he’s not getting a Section 30 order, he’s lost.

Robin McAlpine thinks Swinney’s days as FM may be numbered. I’m not sure about that. Although I’m sure Stephen Flynn has his eye on the job. Might he be the one to exorcise Sturgeon’s baleful ghost? As Lesley Riddoch might say, I hae ma doots!