We have to work together to finally clip Swinney’s wings
WHEN the SNP first came to power 19 years ago today, Tony Blair was Prime Minister, a pint of beer cost £2.50, and Rihanna’s Umbrella was top of the charts. The average house price in Scotland was around £137,000 and the top-selling phone was a Nokia packed with the latest 3G tech.
The world has moved on since then – except for people in Scotland, which has been stuck in a rut for 19 years under SNP govern
ments that have made life worse for people year after year.
We endured the division and distraction of an independence referendum under Alex Salmond.
That was followed by further wasted years of constitutional gripe and grievance under Nicola Sturgeon and her successor, the clown prince of Holyrood, Humza Yousaf.
What does Scotland have to show for nearly 7,000 days of SNP rule? An NHS on its knees, a once world-leading education system in crisis and potholed roads resembling a lunar landscape.
Rural communities have slowly been abandoned, while towns and cities are in a depressing spiral of decline.
Meanwhile, the SNP have made Scotland the highest taxed part of the UK.
John Swinney is happy to withhold support from businesses and watch the economy flatline, while showering taxpayers’ cash on a benefits system that disincentivises work and is openly abused.
Prisoners are released after serving a fraction of their sentence because the SNP have failed to maintain adequate jails.
Back in 2007, Holyrood was at the tail end of its brief honeymoon. Most still hoped the Scottish parliament would deliver for them. Those days are long gone. Years of SNP incompetence and broken promises have demolished people’s faith in the parliament.
The SNP’s ferries scandal has come to symbolise the party’s time in power. It is a decade-long running sore with still no end in sight, wasting hundreds of millions of pounds and leaving island communities literally stranded.
As the years have gone by, the SNP have become increasingly out of touch.
Nicola Sturgeon championed gender self-ID laws, putting crank ideology ahead of women’s rights.
Humza Yousaf introduced hate crime legislation that undermined free speech and wasted police time.
Ministers show a casual disregard for the rules. Whether it is taking an official limo to the football or trying to claim expenses for an £11,000 iPad roaming bill, the SNP’s instinct is always the same: defend the indefensible.
The Nationalists only care about their dream of independence. If John Swinney wins a majority on Thursday life will get even worse.
Back in Bute House with more power than before, his only focus will be the issue that has held Scotland back for so many years – holding a re-run of the 2014 vote.
It is the stuff of nightmares and pro-UK voters should come together to clip his wings. They can do that by voting Scottish Conservative on the peach ballot paper. It prevented an SNP majority in 2021 and 2016. Let’s make sure those peach votes do it again.