Colin Campbell: Drew Hendry faces a real battle to hold on as Highland MP this time
The sudden departure of Humza Yousaf was all but welcomed by Inverness constituency MSP Fergus Ewing and I doubt if MP Drew Hendry needed a handkerchief to wipe away the tears either.
As a regular purveyor of common sense within the SNP, Mr Ewing has clashed repeatedly with the party hierarchy and the now former SNP leader and First Minister, particularly over their ministerial attachment, now terminated, to the "wine bar revolutionaries" who lead the Greens.
And Humza Yousaf's departure should now free Mr Hendry of having to campaign in the upcoming general election on the ludicrous pretence that it will be an "independence election" in which securing a majority of seats would be a mandate for the SNP leader to "open negotiations with Westminster". Humza Yousaf never looked so pitiful as when struggling to promote this notion in broadcast interviews. With him gone, and amid ongoing SNP upheaval, it should fade away with him. The prospect of another referendum, far less independence, is not right now visible even on the far horizon, and Mr Hendry would have done himself no favours by trying to peddle the fantasy that either are close.
In the last election in 2019 he faced no serious challenge. The candidates supposedly trying to defeat him made virtually no impact. A week before polling day, as I wrote elsewhere at the time, I doubt if many people even knew their names.
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That lacklustre and apathetic affair could partly be explained and excused by the absolute dominance of the SNP. The prevailing mood of the time was that they were unassailable and unbeatable, and that Drew Hendry was a nailed-on certainty to be re-elected.
This time things couldn't be more different. Polls are predicting an electoral disaster for the SNP, and given the chaotic shambles of recent weeks, they might well turn out to be broadly right.
When Drew Hendry first won the seat in 2015 by ousting Danny Alexander he fought a fierce campaign. By this time in the process he was widely known as the utterly determined SNP candidate who aimed to catapult him out the door.
This time after almost a decade as MP it is Mr Hendry who is vulnerable. And as the other parties struggle to get their campaigns off the ground it's the Liberal Democrat candidate Angus MacDonald who has already established himself as his main challenger. Given the unprecedented amount of election material already being distributed on his behalf to thousands of households his determination to make a fight of it is being matched by that of a highly motivated and well organised campaign team.
At the time of his selection in February as the Conservative candidate for the new Inverness, Skye and West Ross constituency, Ruraidh Stewart made a bland opening statement which seemed to attract very little interest and virtually no publicity. He is a Highland councillor from Skye. I've seen or heard nothing of electoral relevance from him since. The Labour candidate at the time of writing had yet to be announced.
Whether you support Angus MacDonald or not, there has to be respect for his endeavours. He at least is committed to making the election here a real contest this time. That's what the voters deserve, rather than any repeat of the hopelessly feeble challenge to Drew Hendry and the SNP in 2019.
Humza Yousaf's farewell gift was "hate crimes" legislation which I described here four weeks ago as the biggest threat to free speech in 50 years, and I know because I've been writing newspaper columns for just about that long. Maybe another election is also needed at Holyrood to clear up the unholy mess down there.
