The divisive SNP campaign is nothing compared to the betrayal of the north
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
The SNP have elected a new leader, the Scottish Parliament has confirmed him as the First Minister and he has officially been sworn-in as Humza Yousaf takes the reins in a watershed moment for the politics of the country.
A packed press conference at Murrayfield saw more than 150 journalists attend from across the UK and abroad to discover whether the country was going to get “continuity” with Mr Yousaf or “change” with Kate Forbes.
Mr Yousaf was gracious in victory as were Kate Forbes and Ash Regan but aren’t they all at such times except The Donald. He also spoke movingly about the journey his family had been on for the last 60 years.
That was something that did live up to expectations in that there was no comment beyond noting the fact of it that Scotland was about to get a Muslim First Minister – the first in fact of any European democracy.
So in a world where Russia invaded Ukraine based on a political logic that would be more suited to a conspiracy theorist sweating at their keyboard, his civic nationalism struck the right chord whether you want to rejoin the EU or not.
He said: “I am a proud Scot, and equally a proud European too, and Scotland is a European nation. We want to return to the European Union and play our part in building a continent based on human rights, peace, prosperity and social justice.”
That sounds good and during campaign events, hustings and the Inverness Courier debate he repeatedly said that the A9 is a priority and as vital as that road link is, it is not the only game in town.
I filed my story and as I travelled home to the Highlands I was struck by two things – the size of the job that faces Mr Yousaf and just how far Holyrood and Westminster are in full retreat.
At Murrayfield, Mr Yousaf declared that his “immediate priority” is to protect “every Scot as far as we can from the harm inflicted by the cost of living crisis” but then his to-do list of priorities grew and grew and grew.
He wants “to recover and reform our NHS and other vital public services” while creating the “well-being economy” which makes me wonder what if anything Nicola Sturgeon was doing since 2014.
By the end, it included everything from extending childcare, more rural housing, small business support, criminal justice reform, empowering local authorities, and one more attempt to lift people out of poverty.
I would not say the Highlands has one problem above all others but if you were forced to pick the worst it may well be depopulation and neither the politicians in Westminster nor in Holyrood have done anything at all about that.
Between the two parliaments the most bitter failure belongs to Holyrood because it promised better representation for Scotland but lazy, navel grazing and unimaginative MSPs took that to mean the Central Belt.
So much should have been within its grasp but they let the Highlands go and it is now as distant as Westminster and distant is the right word.
There are near constant reminders of what that means as you drive north – all you have to do is consider some of the major policies or programmes in recent years.
A9 dualling – incomplete, deadline missed (2025); A96 dualling – unknown fate; R100 broadband scheme – incomplete, deadline missed (2021); new GP contract – vaccination clinics missed; Police Scotland – wholesale closures of stations; healthcare – just go to Raigmore.
So in the region that helped pioneer the NHS through rural healthcare around local community hospitals and local teams, you would be lucky to find a GP office and sightings of dentists are almost as prized as those of Nessie.
Police stations have left our communities faster than bank branches and with the officers go their families and their community ties and the two have one thing in common – the decision to leave, to retreat, was based on a balance sheet.
What was not on that balance sheet – despite those politely patronising consultations – is that communities begin to decline when they lack police, doctors, nurses, dentists locally.
You will get the point if you run through all the names of all those towns and villages between Perth and Inverness perched on either side of the road and then consider where you could drive to see a doctor, police officer, or council worker.
By the time I reached Dingwall I was forming the view that the governments were not in retreat but had simply surrendered.
During the campaign he promised to make sure all policy was "rural-proofed" so that no one in rural areas was an "after-thought," which still sounds like an afterthought.
But there is always an opportunity in adversity – Mr Yousaf could do what no SNP First Minister (I could add some others to this list) has done before him: he could recognise that Scotland is not the Central Belt.
Some people think he has applied for a job that has been vacant since mid-February, from the Highland perspective it has been open since May 2007, possibly since May 1999.
