I think within government we need to make sure that it's a wide tent with a big team, rather than a very few people making decisions. Forbes told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “Decisions within the SNP have been taken by too few people and I think that’s well recognised across the political domain. If you want to know why, compare the following statements made by Yousaf and his chief rival, Kate Forbes, yesterday. Unionists will be hoping for a Humza Yousaf victory. The chances of the party emerging from the hole it has dug for itself will depend on who wins and whether that person brings the necessary management and political skills to the table. The leadership contest sparked by Sturgeon’s announcement last month will be done and dusted one week from now. His interim replacement, former SNP minister Mike Russell, has since admitted the party is “in a tremendous mess”, something on which we can all agree.įor any other political party, this would probably be terminal. The author of said fiction, Peter Murrell, the party’s chief executive and, incidentally, Nicola Sturgeon’s husband, resigned the following day.

A senior and respected spin doctor resigned on Friday after passing to journalists membership numbers that turned out to be a work of fiction.

Yes, the SNP have been having the worst time of late. To be fair, the laughter may never stop, or at the very least it may continue for a very long time, perhaps even long enough for a pro-UK majority to assert itself in the Scottish Parliament and banish for at least a generation the prospect of independence.īut given events of the last 15 years or so, such hopes ought to be tempered. Let us enjoy the moment, while it lasts.īut as the cod psychologist in an early episode of Friends once famously said: “I wouldn’t want to be there when the laughter stops.” And who can blame them? It has been a grim period in Scottish politics for anyone who doesn’t support the nationalist movement. The apparent meltdown of the Scottish National Party in the immediate aftermath of Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation announcement has caused much delight among those who oppose the break-up of the United Kingdom. Unionists are having a cheery time, for a change.

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