COLIN CAMPBELL: Next First Minister will always have indy diehards breathing down their neck
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As the car crash race to elect a successor to Nicola Sturgeon reaches its final stages we’re left with candidates emerging from the mangled wreckage of a destructive campaign covered in bile and vitriol and hoping to convince people they’re still fit to govern Scotland.
Ash Regan v Humza Yousaf. A hitherto unknown independence extremist against a “continuity candidate” who’s fouled up every ministerial job he’s been given.
And then there’s Kate Forbes. Her campaign launch wasn’t so much a car crash as a five-mile pile-up. Within 24 hours she’d lost some of her most influential supporters and alienated many within the SNP, and particularly the LBQTI brigade, who were appalled by her utterances stemming from her Free Church faith.
But once the initial storm had blown over she found herself being lauded by a wider audience for her honesty. But many within the SNP, like the loudmouth Mhairi Black, will never forgive her.
If Forbes does win the contest and brings some sanity to the gender reform excesses, gets rid of Black with her penchant for bringing drag queens into primary schools, and severs ties with the Green zealots who want us all queuing up to get 20p back on empty drinks containers, it would be a promising start.
Nicola Sturgeon was castigated by many throughout her tenure in office for being “divisive”. And she certainly excelled at that. But as SNP leader, part of the job description is being divisive. They are in that role specifically to divide and rip apart the UK.
The obvious problem for either Forbes or Yousaf – the clear frontrunners – will be deciding what their priorities are when one of them takes over from Sturgeon.
Do they primarily govern “for all the people of Scotland” as First Minister, which would mean dispensing with talk of referendums and independence, and focusing on health, education, transport and the other staples of the job?
Or do they also keep a hardline focus on independence to fulfil their role as SNP leader?
Whoever is elected will always have the diehards for whom independence matters first, last and foremost breathing fire down their neck.
Kate Forbes seems a nice person. As finance secretary she certainly hasn’t been slow to vent her spleen at the UK government with accusations of Scotland being ignored or sold short when it comes to funding.
If she’s elected, many will hope she lowers the confrontational tone and at least tries to find some accord with the UK government as she focuses on trying to improve life in Scotland rather than foment the independence obsession. But the nice Ms Forbes has said repeatedly during the campaign that she should be elected because those who oppose independence “fear” her. That could be construed as menacing. Yet again, the wannabe First Minister could have used wiser words.
The three candidates all say they can deliver independence. But Nicola Sturgeon couldn’t do it. And, although people became tired of her in the end, she was, at the height of her powers, a more formidable natural born leader than any of the trio scrapping so furiously to replace her.
