JIM SPENCE: SNP-Green deal showed Holyrood can be as vicious as Westminster

I can’t see John Swinney’s unopposed coronation as SNP leader improving the future of the SNP one iota.

His party seems to be on course to be hammered by Labour at the general election because they’re increasingly out of touch with the needs of many Scots.

That’s not necessarily a blessing since Sir Keir Starmer appears to sway in the wind like a flag on a gusty day.

But it seems enough voters in Scotland are prepared to back Labour to get rid of an SNP which has corroded much of the public trust in Holyrood.

I left the Labour party after Maggie Thatcher’s third election victory, thinking Scotland could do no worse being independent.

I now think that while that may still possibly be true it may also be the case that we could be a great deal worse off.

The cause of my disenchantment is simple.

The SNP-Green agreement at Holyrood has shown an independent Scotland can be as equally venal, vituperative, vicious, and vacuous, as the political chamber in London.

The same machinations and skulduggeries are practiced in both Parliaments and until I can be convinced that we would actually be any better, I’m not entrusting health, wealth, or happiness in voting for vague unquantifiable benefits.

Alex Salmond led a Scottish Government flexible enough to deal in the realities of the world as it existed, not as some dreamers insist it will be.

His practical approach to running the country pointed the way to a gradual acceptance of Scotland eventually going its own road via an amicable departure on good terms from our oldest neighbours; and one which hopefully wouldn’t be too big a financial and emotional wrench.

Salmond and the SNP back then seemed invested in improving the material and economic living standards of Scots.

Since his departure though, the SNP’s ill-fated coalition with the Greens in government has seen Holyrood captured by virtue signalling dimwits.

They’ve pandered to the demands of a miniscule but voluble section of the population on issues like gender and hate crime, to the exclusion of the larger daily problems affecting the vast majority.

Big issues put on back burner in SNP-Green coalition

Education, health, housing, and poverty have gone on the back burner as out of touch MSPs have pursued matters irrelevant to 99% of voters.

Now the chickens are coming home to roost for an embattled SNP which is full of folk desperate to cling to the fat salaries and comfy lifestyles, which look to be in serious danger of disappearing.

At the weekend Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar did what he should have done a long time ago on a subject which has angered the vast majority of Scots and tied the Scottish Parliament in knots.

He clearly stated his position on the difference between men and women saying “It’s very simple, a man has a penis and a woman has a vagina”.

He’s guilty of hypocrisy since he and other labour MSPs voted for the Gender Recognition Reform bill but his conversion to common sense is welcome nonetheless.

Sarwar sees which way the wind is blowing on this and other issues.

Scots want competent sensible government and the failure to provide it is why the SNP look set for a thumping at the next general election.

Swinney told an SNP conference in Dundee last June “Our proposition should be this. At the next Westminster election, if people vote SNP they are voting for Scotland to be an independent country; clear, simple, democratic”.

On that basis when the SNP is rejected so too will be any hopes of independence for the foreseeable future.

More dignified solution than begging would make Dundee less hostile

Dundee isn’t unique in the problems faced by its city centre.

The Courier survey has offered a wide range of views on how to tackle many of the issues.

One of the problems in town is street begging, something which sharply divides public opinion.

I conducted a social media poll which showed an almost even split between those who give sometimes and those who don’t give at all.

Many who beg on the streets live chaotic lifestyles, can’t cope with normal life, and use the money for drugs, although there are undoubtedly some for whom it’s purely a money-making exercise.

Most are passive although some are increasingly aggressive; recently I spoke to one young girl after mass who had been slashed by a fellow beggar.

I wonder if it would be better to stop street begging and instead have donation boxes in public spaces around the city where those wishing to offer money could contribute.

It can’t be impossible to devise a method of disbursing money at set locations for those who’d otherwise be sitting for hours looking for financial help.

It would be more dignified and less demeaning and might also make the city centre a less hostile place for everyone.