Scotland

Back to Scotland, where hapless Humza Yousaf is still managing to cause the SNP problems even after his resignation. It’s been over a month since Yousaf’s controversial Hate Crime Act came into force, and it still isn’t going down particularly well with the people of Scotland — to put things mildly. It now transpires that almost half of all Scots would rather it be repealed, according to a new Savanta poll for the Scotsman. Talk about a flop… The rather revealing survey, which polled 1,080 Scots between May 3-8, found that 49 per cent of Scots thought the new law should be repealed. Only 36 per cent felt it should

Winnie Ewing, SNP royalty – Madame Écosse to those who had served alongside her in the European Parliament – opened proceedings with a song in her voice and a twinkle in her eye. ‘The Scottish Parliament,’ said the oldest of its new members, ‘adjourned on 25th day of March in the year 1707, is hereby reconvened’. Applause rang out across the debating chamber. The sense of optimism, and possibility, was palpable on the morning of Wednesday, May 12, 1999. On the 25th anniversary of devolution, the mood is very different.  Holyrood was supposed to be home to a new kind of politics but, of course, there is no such thing. Today,

There may be a new First Minister in the driving seat but can the SNP overtake Labour’s lead in the polls? Just this morning, Savanta revealed that, for the very first time in the pollster’s history, Labour is four points ahead of the SNP in Westminster voting intention. It’s certainly not the best start to the job for freshly-appointed John Swinney… And despite officially leading his country for about, er, two days, Swinney is already facing dissent over his decision-making. In a move that was widely anticipated, the First Minister made Kate Forbes his second-in-command – much to the dismay of the Scottish Greens. The eco-activists promptly fell into fits

What comes around goes around. John Swinney has this afternoon become Scotland’s seventh First Minister after being appointed, unopposed, as SNP leader on Monday. It was a coronation event like no other – where Swinney was threatened by a contest from a rank and file activist within his own party after hapless Humza Yousaf paved the way to his own resignation. Now, the veteran Nat and former SNP leader has swooped into government from the backbenches in a move that some hint was a little more scripted than first thought… Today, Swinney faced off challenges for the top job from the leaders of the Scottish Labour party, the Scottish Conservatives

And so we have it: a nationalist coronation, as yet another First Minister resigns. John Swinney, formerly Nicola Sturgeon’s deputy FM and onetime leader of the SNP himself, has been elected – unopposed – as the new leader of the Scottish National party. Thought to have been parachuted in by the party establishment, Swinney’s coronation was almost foiled by ‘flatulence in a trance‘ SNP activist Graeme McCormick who, by some quirk in the SNP’s constitution, had enough nominations to stand against the MSP for the leadership. But, at the eleventh hour, the renegade backed down after having ‘lengthy and fruitful’ talks with Swinney himself. Branded the ‘unity’ candidate, the new

If you want to know how deep is the crisis in which the Scottish National Party currently finds itself, let this sink in: the next leader of the party will be a man who’s already had the job and made an absolute mess of it. In a remarkable turn of events following the resignation of Humza Yousaf on Monday, senior SNP figures quickly began urging John Swinney – who served as Nicola Sturgeon’s deputy when she was First Minister – to enter the contest to replace him. This morning, Swinney accepted their challenge and announced his candidacy to become SNP leader and, thus, Scotland’s seventh First Minister since the establishment

News just in: Scotland’s Crown Office has still not received a report from Police Scotland about the SNP’s former chief executive Peter Murrell — almost a fortnight after he was rearrested and charged with embezzlement. Talk about taking things slowly… The husband of former first minister Nicola Sturgeon was taken into police custody for the second time on 18 April as part of the police probe into SNP finances — and charged with embezzling funds from his own party. Yet two weeks on, there has been little sign of the case progressing. Shortly after the police force announced that it had charged the former SNP chief, it transpired that Murrell

None of the candidates for the SNP leadership has declared yet, but it is shaping up to be a classic two horse race between the former leader, and Nicola Sturgeon bag man, John Swinney and the socially conservative former finance secretary, Kate Forbes. But in this race, they are both losers before they start. To turn to a chess metaphor, the SNP is caught in a zugzwang: they have to make a move but every move puts them in a worse position.  Kate Forbes is – shock – a practising Christian First: the veteran ‘safe pair of hands’, John Swinney. He’s the not-so-fresh face of the ‘old guard’ who effectively blocked Humza

Humza Yousaf has announced his resignation as First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party. His time was short, but he’s overseen a dramatic change in the party he’ll now cease to lead: a discipline once revered by opponents has given way to a party in open dissent. As he prepares to leave the political stage what can Scotland remember him for? As Scotland approaches a quarter of a century of devolution it’s striking how hard it has been to hold its to account. The Scottish government famously has more press officers than the BBC has reporters, the country is near devoid of think tanks and the third sector