Inside the Catholic church hall where Scotland’s election came to life
SEVEN Holyrood elections have been held in the devolved era and this one seems to have been the least engaging of them all. On social media and among political commentators, a rather depressing consensus is apparent: that Holyrood 2026 has been a non-event. The fate of Scotland does not hang on it and little of any consequence will occur as a result of it.
The STV leaders’ debate in Edinburgh on Tuesday night merely reinforced such an analysis. There was a moment when the Scottish Conservative leader, Russell Findlay repeatedly asked the First
Minister to explain why drugs deaths in Scotland under the SNP were now at chronic levels. Mr Swinney replied lamely that his party had “taken action to stop it”. This was wrong and everyone in the room, not least Mr Swinney, knew it to be so. He might as well just have said “naw it iznae” for all that he and his supporters seem to care. And indeed why the hell should they care? The SNP will win next Thursday’s election and win handsomely. They’ll hold on to some seats where the drugs deaths are heaviest.
Scotland’s main party leaders lined up to tell Mr Swinney that his party had been a catastrophic failure throughout its 20 years in office. In response, the First Minister offered only the prospect of cheap bus fares, walk-in GP surgeries, free schoolbags and cut-price comestibles. He said that Scotland was doing better than England across any sector that you cared to mention by quoting a series of unverified numbers that can be challenged by different measuring tools. No-one in the room asked him to verify them. Even his opponents have given up the ghost.
Mr Swinney said he would “act to try to simplify the tax system”. It was weasel language. He wouldn’t simplify the tax system, nor even try to simplify it. He would only “act” to try to simplify it. How will we know? This was a man who looked like he was going through the motions, knowing he needn’t do more than that. He’s blithely told us that he will move to instigate a referendum on independence, yet he knows – and we know – that he simply can’t do that. He may “act to try to hold an independence referendum”, but it won’t happen.
This isn’t a lie: merely a deception. It’s the most luxurious of luxury concepts; the golden ticket of beliefs before which all other policies and all previous failures are null and void. It’s enough to mesmerise that 45% or so of those intending to vote who have been duped into believing that Scotland on its own, freed from England’s shackles, will make the magic beans work.
Mr Swinney’s most likely leading opponent after next week is a man who believes that boasting about his extraordinary wealth won’t do him any harm. The First Minister must have been doing cartwheels after Tuesday night’s debate. “Is this the best they can do?” After 25 years, the same question can be asked about devolution. “Is this the best they can do?” When the leading candidates are merely “acting to try to” replace Mr Swinney as First Minister then no-one can be surprised that this Scottish election is turning into the most dismal and uninspiring of them all.
And then, on Tuesday afternoon, I visited a Catholic church hall in Motherwell town centre and for a few hours it became apparent that our politics and the way we conduct them is still in good health. Two local parishes, both under the leadership of Fr Colum Martin and with the blessing of Bishop Joseph Toal, had organised a hustings event for candidates in the Motherwell & Wishaw constituency. Even though it had been hastily arranged, all the main parties were represented with the exception of the Lib Dems.
They asked me to chair this event, which I was happy to do with some provisos, the chief being that it shouldn’t be a Catholic inquisition where the candidates – of all beliefs and none – would be interrogated over their views on the Church’s doctrines about sex and relationships. Some of the communities which form this constituency suffer profound social inequalities chiefly apparent in housing shortages, NHS waiting times, unemployment, and poor health outcomes.
However, this being an event organised by the Catholic Church, sex and reproduction were bound to feature. The trick was to deploy an unashamedly Presbyterian approach to matters such as these: one of rectitude and caution. More than 60 of us had gathered on a weekday afternoon and the candidates all acquitted themselves well in the face of some formidable questioning by an informed audience who were in no mood to take any of your nonsense.
I was particularly impressed by
Anthony Carroll, the Scottish Greens candidate. This young man was entering a lion’s den where his party’s positions on trans rights and placing sexually violent men in women’s prisons would be forcefully challenged. Yet throughout, he handled these questions with great skill and forbearance, not to mention a measure of empathy and sensitivity too often lacking higher up in the Scottish Greens.
During the 2015 Westminster election campaign, I was invited to chair a hustings event in Milngavie organised by a group fighting to save their local Catholic primary school. It was there that I first encountered a young local activist who hadn’t long left school. In a heavyweight panel that included John Nicolson and Jo Swinson, this young Green was by far the outstanding performer and I fancied that he would become a successful politician before long. His name was Ross Greer and the highest compliment I can pay Mr Carroll for the way he handled himself on Tuesday is that he reminded me of his party co-leader.
According to the human rights organisation, Article 19, 78% of the world’s population (six billion people) now live in countries where freedom of expression is restricted. In 2022 that number was 34%. The 2024 Economic Intelligence Index concluded that of 167 tracked countries, only 25 enjoyed full democracy. These were split between what they described as flawed democracies, hybrid regimes and full-on authoritarian regimes.
Britain and Scotland are included (for now) in those anointed 25 nations. When the majority stop caring about the outcomes of elections though, the bad actors begin to make their moves, and even the most robust democracies begin to fail.