Can a Swinney change his spots? - John McLellan

Newly elected leader of the SNP and FM John Swinney speaks in the main chambe

When I work-ed for Ruth David-son, our main task of the week was preparation for First Minister’s Questions, trying to find issues which would either catch Alex Salmond on the hop or at least give us a sound bite. With only two questions it wasn’t easy.

There’s no quarter asked or given in these weekly jousts, and that certainly applied to John Swinney, whose aggression in support of his bosses over the years was more like the kind of behaviour current Conservative leader Douglas Ross experiences from the football terraces when he’s running the line.

I should therefore credit our latest First Minster with some self-awareness during his acceptance speech on Tuesday when he accepted his role in creating an “intensely polarised” parliament, “whether by shouting put-downs from the front bench or heckling from a sedentary position.”

In today’s climate, for a man to bay at a woman in her early 30s would attract accusations of misogyny, indeed I have heard female Nationalists make the same accusations against men for far less.

And although I wouldn’t put Mr Swinney down as a misogynist, his sledging displayed a vicious edge beyond the usual debating rough and tumble, and there was certainly little humour about what was an obvious tactic to create as hostile an atmosphere as possible in which the opposition leaders might fluff their lines.

“I promise that that will all stop. I have changed,” he said, before adding the qualification that “perhaps time will tell on that one”. I give it a week.