Let's Get Political!

[adje]

Angela Rayner would be up for a scrap no doubt

Would love to see her knock JRM straight out!🙂

[Nemo]

So Scottish politics is usually fairly dull compared to Westminster, but we've had a doozy of a last 96 hours or so.

We've had SNP/Green coalition for a few years since the last election, obviously with a change of First Minister in that after Sturgeon resigned and was replaced by Humza Yousaf, who was generally seen as a fairly hapless politician, but not particularly controversial in his views (as opposed to his main competition, who was seen as much more competent but a serious rightward shift for the SNP politically). Yousaf was the health secretary during the pandemic, so if you imagine a Scottish Matt Hancock you'll not be far wrong.

Anyway, there have been some disputes within the coalition as is fairly normal, and the Greens were talking about balloting their membership on whether to break the agreement or not. The suggestion was that if they withdrew from the formal power sharing agreement, they'd probably still provide the votes to allow the SNP to continue as a minority government.

Mr. Yousaf reacted to this by essentially publicly sacking his coalition partners in a "you didn't dump me, I dumped you" move so poorly handled that the Greens are now willing to vote to bring him down personally, leaving his only possible chance of survival on the one Alba MSP (that's Alex Salmond's - remember him- new ego vehicle) who absolutely hates his guts.

So he'll probably resign today as the pressure is pretty clearly on him personally rather than the party. I guess that's the difference between the situation in Scotland and Britain more widely - whilst Sunak is unpopular, so is every other option for the Tory party to turn to, whereas Yousaf is personally unpopular but the SNP vote is still holding up pretty well (neck and neck with Labour in the polls).

So yeah, fans of political drama, one of the greatest acts of political self-sabotage since... well, Liz Truss' entire premiership. So not that long, but still...

[donkey]

And the Labour motion of no confidence in the govt is still tabled... even his recognition might not be enough to stave off an election.

Interesting for sure.

[Nemo]

I enjoyed this quote from the Tory Scottish Secretary, in which he opines on the shading of the kettle from within a pot.

It was the right thing for the first minister to resign.

Humza Yousaf’s leadership has lurched from crisis to crisis from the very start, and he could not command the confidence of the Scottish parliament.

Scotland now needs a stable, functioning Scottish government focused on the issues that matter most to people – fixing public services and growing the economy.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

The SNP is dead in the water - for the time being anyway. All that’s happened today allied by sticky fingers Mr Nicola Sturgeon has seen to that.

Can’t trust any of the fuckers.