NATIONALISM'S GREATEST TRICK? MAKING PEOPLE BELIEVE ITS EMPTY PROMISES

• For 17 years of abject failure, the SNP prioritised soundbite over substance. Now it falls to John Swinney to maintain the illusion that his party is delivering 

 The energising skirl of the bagpipes echoed across the Firth of Clyde on the rainy morning of November 21, 2017. 

The sky may have been grey but the mood among the crowd, sheltering under a canopy of umbrellas, was sunny.

Those gathered at Ferguson Marine in Port Glasgow were – quite understandably – excited because after years of community decline, here was what they dared to hope might be the rebirth of the shipbuilding industry.

Nicola Sturgeon, then the all-powerful leader of the SNP and First Minister, stepped up to a podium and quieted the crowd. 

On a slipway in front of her stood MV Glen Sannox, one of two passenger ferries ordered, under a £97million contract, by the Scottish Government.

‘This,’ she told her audience, ‘is a very emotional occasion, as all ship launches are.

But this is emotional in particular because of the very special place the shipyard has in the heart of this community and indeed in the heart of Scotland.’

Calling for God’s blessing on the ferry and all who sail on her, Ms Sturgeon released the traditional champagne bottle, which smashed on the hull before the vessel slipped into the water. 

The cheers were deafening.

However, this triumphant moment was not all it seemed. In fact, it was a sham.

The ferry was very far from being completed. 

It looked the part, all right, but its windows were painted on, its funnels didn’t work and the bow wasn’t fit for purpose.

Could there be a more perfect metaphor for the SNP’s 17-year political reign in Scotland?

While the Nationalists have enthusiastically told a story of progress and achievement, the truth is they have done nothing of substance with the powers they hold.

From a distance, they might look like a government of competence, but get up close and you can see the bits they’ve painted on.

The reason for this is simple; at the heart of the SNP’s political project is a void, a great echoing black hole of nothing. 

There are no serious ideas, only monomania about achieving the chaotic break-up of the UK.

There is no drive to create a better country using the powers of Holyrood, only the destructive urge to foment anger and division.

A LMOST seven years after what turned out to be nothing more than a stunt, neither MV Glen Sannox nor its sister ferry MV Glen Rosa are in service, while costs have soared to more than £360million.

SNP ministers insisted the new ferries be built on the Clyde not because it was the option that offered best value for the Scottish taxpayer, but because of the symbolism of the deal. 

The Nationalists wished to give the impression they had brought the once-thriving Scottish shipbuilding industry back to life.

Symbolism is, of course, all important to the SNP which, since taking power in 2007, has prioritised introducing legislation that might bolster their story of Scots as uniquely different to the English.

This instinct to prioritise storytelling over substance was evident from the moment the SNP took control.

Look at the Nationalists’ approach to the NHS, for example. In opposition, Ms Sturgeon insisted only her party could protect the health service. 

Its health spokesman at the time told us that, under Labour (which, it might be uncomfortable for SNP members to remember, created the NHS at the same time some senior Nats were still regretting the Allies’ victory in the Second World War), the NHS was in terminal decline.

But what, when the SNP won the 2007 election, was their big idea to improve services? With much fanfare, the SNP extended the existing provision of free prescriptions to include the wealthy and took the ticket machines out of hospital car parks.

These were policies that spoke of good old fashioned Scottish compassion and common sense, apparently.

In fact, there was little sense in directing resources away from those areas of the service that needed investment.

The prescriptions policy costs more than £50million a year. Common sense would, for example, have been to use that money to hire more medical staff to deal with the needs of an ever-growing elderly population.

And when, finally, the SNP Government did begin to address the problem of growing waiting lists and delays for treatment, their solution was as hollow as any other SNP wheeze. 

Ministers put new waiting time guarantees into statute, placing upon themselves a legal obligation to keep their promises.

This certainly looked like a government taking things seriously but there was just one small problem with the new law. 

Ministers neglected to include in the legislation any meaningful sanction for failure to meet these now legally binding guarantees.

This is a law – and we should use the word loosely in this instance – that may be broken with impunity.

The SNP instinct to prioritise imagery over action grew stronger when Ms Sturgeon succeeded Alex Salmond as First Minister.

When the Nationalists wished to present Scotland as uniquely compassionate towards children, did they target investment towards areas of deprivation?

Did they focus on solving already identified problems in schools such as the tendency of many boys to slip academically and go off the rails socially during the transition years between primary and secondary school?

Of course, Ms Sturgeon’s government did none of these things. Instead, it pushed ahead with plans to appoint a state guardian to every child.

The dangerously illiberal Named Person Act was supposed to send a signal to the world that Scotland really cared about its kids. 

The problem was that this proposed intrusion into the lives of every family in the country was not, itself, legal.

Ministers hadn’t put the effort into thinking about whether the law was workable. It fell to the Supreme Court to tell them it was not, on the grounds that it breached human rights law.

Just about every SNP Government promise made during the eras of Ms Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf has been hollow. And Scots have paid a price for that.

Both leaders’ obsessions with delivering a referendum have put Scotland on hold.

Neither dared take on any difficult challenges as they feared the risk of controversy that might harm the independence cause. 

This cowardice renders all SNP claims towards radical progress utterly hollow.

SNP First Ministers may have delivered speech after speech about how committed they are to driving up standards in schools and creating an NHS fit to meet the demands of the 21st century but their words have meant nothing.

Reality shows us as much.

Years of soundbite-over-substance have seen the NHS lurch towards breaking point and standards in literacy and numeracy among children slide, while empty promises of action in place of ideas for change mean there has been next to no progress on tackling Scotland’s shameful level of drug-related deaths.

John Swinney’s imminent return as party leader tells us a great deal about the void at the heart of the SNP’s project.

Mr Yousaf, for the time being, has two deputies. Keith Brown is deputy leader of the SNP, while Shona Robison is Deputy First Minister. 

These are, by any standard, substantial roles in Scotland’s party of government.

Wasn’t it remarkable, then, that when Mr Yousaf announced his resignation on Monday, there was absolutely no suggestion within SNP ranks that either Mr Brown or Ms Robison might step up?

F or years, the SNP has boasted of the breadth and depth of its pool of talent while attacking its opponents for being tired and out of ideas.

How does that story of the SNP as home to the brightest and best in our politics marry up to the reality of the return to leadership of Mr Swinney, whose last spell in charge between 2000-04 was disastrous?

One might make the argument for Kate Forbes, the former Finance Secretary who, rather than standing against Mr Swinney has accepted his offer to join his new Cabinet in a senior role, as a politician of some substance but beyond her, when it comes to talent, the SNP has produced nobody of note since Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney got together more than three decades ago.

Mr Swinney’s return is an admission of failure by the SNP. And no amount of SNP spin can divert us from that truth.

The party wishes Scots to unite around the idea that Mr Swinney represents change for Scotland.

That’s quite the ask, what with Mr Swinney having spent most of his career at the very top of an SNP government that has so conspicuously failed Scotland.

For all but one of the 17 years of decline in public services under the mismanagement of the SNP, Mr Swinney was one of the most powerful and influential figures in government. 

He encouraged and supported Ms Sturgeon throughout almost a decade where the Scottish Government prioritised agitating for a second referendum over addressing the priorities of the Scottish people.

When Ms Sturgeon was on her feet in the Holyrood debating chamber, angrily dismissing concerns over the hugely unpopular and ultimately unworkable plan to reform the Gender Recognition Act, Mr Swinney was by her side, thumping his desk in support.

And when Ms Sturgeon was ignoring the advice of business leaders and pushing up income tax for Scots workers, Mr Swinney was fully on board.

Can Mr Swinney really offer the change Scotland needs when, the last time he was in office, his government showed absolutely no interest in the needs of the entrepreneurs and wealth creators who keep the economy afloat.

And what do Scots get for all the extra tax they pay? An ever worsening slate of public services, that’s what. 

How can a man who helped lay the foundations for the current crisis in the SNP – and its impact on a nation being so poorly served by a dysfunctional government – be the agent for change?

Little more than a year ago, Mr Swinney stepped down as Deputy First Minister, making it clear his days on the frontline were over.

There was, he said, a breadth of talent in the SNP at Holyrood. He and Ms Sturgeon were leaving the party in capable hands, whoever became the next leader. And then Humza Yousaf got the job.

W HEN it comes to talent, the SNP has always made a little go a long way. 

The electoral surge which led to it gaining an unprecedented Holyrood majority in 2011 was not achieved because of the remarkable calibre of its candidates but because of the campaigning skills of a very small group of people at the top of the party.

A cadre of Mr Salmond, Mr Swinney, Ms Sturgeon, her husband and then SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, spin doctor Kevin Pringle (who was hired for that role by Mr Yousaf) and the MSP Bruce Crawford, whose skill in cutting deals with rival parties when the Nationalists ran a minority government were crucial to the SNP’s ongoing success.

That team created the illusion of substance in Nationalist ranks.

The reality, however, was that during the time Ms Sturgeon and Mr Swinney were running the show, they had so little faith in the abilities of Cabinet secretaries that they effectively micromanaged each of them, making key decisions over the heads of ministers across all portfolios.

This lack of talent has contributed to years of hollow government. 

While party leaders have spent much of their time agitating for referendums they had no power to deliver, their Cabinets have been stuffed with intellectual lightweights whose analysis of the needs of families across Scotland stretches little further than blind faith in the idea that breaking up the UK is the answer to everything.

Far too many of their MSPs think pushing a big red button marked ‘independence’ will transform Scotland.

SNP spinners talk of the party’s record in government as one of progress and change but the reality is that years of Nationalist leadership are marked by inaction and missed opportunity.

Oh, cries the pious Nationalist, what about the baby box? Isn’t that proof of our government’s progressive politics?

The answer is no. This much vaunted ‘proof’ of wise government is – with its packs of nappies and bibs – perfectly useful but studies show its provision does nothing to improve the lot of children born into deprivation. It is just another hollow Nationalist symbol, an empty gesture.

John Swinney will be First Minister within days. He will be the SNP’s seventh leader at Holyrood since 1999. The roll call will run: Alex Salmond, John Swinney, Nicola Sturgeon (holding the fort while Mr Salmond was at Westminster), Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon, Humza Yousaf and John Swinney. 

Does that sound like a party of fresh ideas and new beginnings to you?

The idea we’re finally about to enter an era of substantial, reforming government under the SNP is as convincing as the windows of the MV Glen Sannox on that wet November morning in 2017.

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2024-05-03T21:35:49Z dg43tfdfdgfd