Humza Yousaf and the Highlands: if he goes what will be the impact?
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Starting with the SNP leadership campaign 13 months ago First Minister Humza Yousaf has made numerous visits to the Highlands in a marked change from his predecessor.
Nicola Sturgeon’s visits to the region could be described as like lunar eclipses in their frequency and brevity but Mr Yousaf kept on coming back, again and again – has it been worth it for the north?
During those visits, starting with the SNP leadership campaign – including taking part in The Inverness Courier debate – he made a number of promises.
His future as First Minister is hanging by a thread so what would be gained and what lost by his leaving Bute House?
His promise to complete the dualling of the A9 was the most significant and most high-profile after the SNP spectacularly missed its 2025 deadline.
Did he deliver? Frustratingly the answer is partially in so far as he could there is a new programme with a 2035 deadline but we shall have to wait another 11 years to know for sure whether or not the SNP “betrays” the north again.
What could be lost here is the political will to complete the programme and that has happened before. Alex Salmond promised dualling and then Nicola Sturgeon became the First Minister and nine years later Mr Yousaf had to fix the problem.
He practically staked his reputation on the A9 and was so invested in it that he signed a pledge put to him by The Inverness Courier promising to finish the dualling by 2035.
Should Mr Yousaf survive as First Minister then there would be what Highland SNP MSP Emma Roddick said are “opportunities” for the party without reference to former coalition partners the Greens.
In this area there could be gains. Without arguing about the merits of the Scottish Greens policies in rural Scotland, many have greeted their proposals without outright hostility.
It is safe to say that when a policy is tabled – Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) – that inspires a song called The Clearances Again then someone in government has not taken the people with them.
The most recent example is the ban on wood burning stoves in new properties. The exemption offered is so narrow as to not be worthwhile, while the validity of the idea behind the changes has been almost universally criticised.
Like HPMAs, the backlash was swift and gave birth to a word that for many, including on the mainland Highlands, articulates the problem – “mansplaining.” It is defined: “when central belt folk” try telling “islanders they know better than we do about our own political issues.”
And that neologism emerged on the back of a visit by Mr Yousaf to the Isle of Lewis, earlier on the same trip he had visited Dingwall Auction Mart – but the ban on wood fired heating was not mentioned.
Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie was behind the change and insisted that this was good policy, but that was comprehensively debunked by former Greens MSP Andy Wightman.
Holyrood Sources Andy Maciver with connections to the Western Isles put the case clearly: "I've never seen the scale of disregard for central-belt policy-making that I see now [in rural areas]. You can't find people who think the Scottish Government is making policy in the interests of rural communities."
So should Mr Yousaf continue he would have the chance to reset the government’s relationship with those in rural Scotland who often and repeatedly state that those in power in Edinburgh lack a sufficient clue in how to develop rural policy.
If the First Minister does then he would be fulfilling a promise made after a campaign event that he has certainly not lived up to which he said at Eden Court after a SNP hustings: “I think government policy must be rural-proofed as well as island-proofed.”
And so far as the Highlands is concerned it would have to be a very serious shift away from how the government has operated since 2014, yet if he were to get Kate Forbes and Fergus Ewing involved, the lifting would be light.
Both have been critical of his performance so far but both have publicly supported him since he ended the Bute House Agreement. By listening to those in his own party who know rural areas, policies that previously were considered damaging could be vastly improved.
If he does not re-orient government policy away from a solely urban mindset then, his not inconsiderable efforts on the A9 apart, there will be very little to celebrate or mourn if he leaves as First Minister.
