JIM SPENCE: SNP collapse means political homelessness could be huge issue at next election

Political homelessness could be a big issue at the next election in Scotland.

The SNP – who’ve controlled Holyrood for the entire lifetime of this summer’s crop of school leavers – look like a drowning sailor clinging to a punctured life-raft.

And above the roar of every fresh wave of misfortune which crashes over their heads, their plea for a fresh start is going unheard.

They claim membership numbers are up but many independence activists who were their door knockers and foot sloggers at campaign time have joined Alba or given up the ghost.

Labour in Scotland is making inroads but they’ve a long way to go to recapture many of their former voters.

Lots of those folk haven’t forgiven them for being the voice of Westminster in Scotland instead of the voice of Scotland in Westminster.

The Conservatives are seen by many as an English party, deaf to Scots interests, although the numbers of SNP members who voted for Kate Forbes as leader proves there’s a substantial element of Scots attracted to the centre right message.

The Scottish Greens and the Liberal Democrats seem more intent on pursuing transgender issues than their traditional policies, and lots of folk find that issue at odds with the main purposes of both parties.

There’s a clear and present danger of voters switching off from a political scene which resembles a bear pit.

‘Every day brings fresh scandal’

Where politicians once argued their case through economic and philosophical debate, there’s now a sense that they try to beat opponents into submission by force of will.

When enough people stop listening to a political party and others regard almost anything it says as untrue, then it’s holed below the waterline in danger of sinking.

That’s the situation the SNP may be facing.

Every day seems to bring not just fresh scandal but tales from senior figures which seem barely credible.

We’re told membership figures are increasing – but who will trust those claims given their recent record of housekeeping?

And Stephen Flynn revealed on national radio he’d been SNP Westminster leader for two months before being told the group didn’t have auditors, and were at risk of losing their short money, which would result in job losses in the party.

Many who’ve left the SNP feel it was captured long ago by outright careerists with few serious political principles.

They think such opportunists would’ve been happy in any party offering them power and influence.

They also think it’s under the spell of a coterie of gender warriors who are seriously out of touch with the majority of the electorate.

‘Those who kowtowed to Sturgeon were favoured’

Increasingly too in politics, and this applies to not just the Nationalists, is the sense that the amount of actual work and earnings involved are in inverse proportion to many other jobs.

As the biggest party the SNP has provided very comfy berths for those whose main talents were to recognise how to prosper under Nicola Sturgeon’s iron fist leadership.

Those who ingratiated themselves and kowtowed to her presidential style were favoured at the expense of those with actual ability, who might have challenged her autocratic rule.

Unlike politics, few positions in normal life offer almost un-sackable tenure for five years, with no job description, targets, or set hours.

Increasingly, fairly or not, some politicians are seen as living in a parallel universe, untroubled and unaware of the day to day issues concerning ordinary people.

At the next election I can see a lot of stay at home voters – and also a raft of spoiled ballot papers with the words ‘None of The Above’ scribbled angrily over them.

Diane Abbott’s letter was dangerous

There’s a modicum of truth in the old saying the person who isn’t a socialist at 20 doesn’t have a heart; the person who isn’t a conservative at 40 doesn’t have a brain.

If the political right’s biggest failing is its heartlessness, the left’s is its blatant hypocrisy.

Diane Abbott is a scion of the left, yet like many others who espouse equality she had no issue in having her son privately educated.

Her original sanctimonious letter to The Observer was dangerous and went well beyond mere cant.

My statement pic.twitter.com/Wu2h4nNOvN

— Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) April 23, 2023

It showed she thinks there’s a hierarchy of racism, with black people elevated above Jewish folk and others.

She swiftly retracted it claiming the first effort was a draft, but it was like a flat-earther immediately recanting to admit the globe was round after all.

Labour has sensibly withdrawn the whip from her.

More folk today are more tolerant than ever and it’s incumbent on people in positions of power and influence, like Diane Abbott, to take great care in public and private pronunciations to keep it that way.