They’re all the same, politicians. How often have we heard this before? We need a real choice, people often say. Well, we have it now; or at least members of the Scottish National party do. If you’ve been watching the televised debates, of which there have now been four, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this is a contest between three members of different political parties, only one of whom belongs to the government of the day.
The two front-runners for the crown, health secretary Humza Yousaf and finance secretary Kate Forbes, have adopted polar opposite strategies in this leadership contest, and offer their party and their country an entirely different vision for the way forward on almost every key issue.
Yousaf is the party’s chosen one. A protégé of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the implicit choice of her and the party establishment, and now the explicit choice of her deputy John Swinney, he has enthusiastically adopted the role as the high protector of the government’s record in office, and of its coalition (sorry, ahem, ‘Cooperation Agreement’) with the Greens.
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