Changed days indeed as Labour and SNP swap places in Scotland - Susan Dalgety


The highly regarded Scottish Social Attitudes Survey, which has been running since Holyrood was established in 1999, shows that less than half of Scots (47 per cent) trust the Scottish Government.
This is a big drop from when a similar question was asked in 2019, when 61 per cent of people were happy that the Scottish Government was working in their best interests.
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Hide AdIf a week is a long time in politics, then five years is an eternity. In 2019, Nicola Sturgeon was still highly popular among voters, the mistress of all she surveyed.
A global pandemic remained the stuff of science fiction novels, and while the UK had voted to leave Europe in 2016, the full impact of Brexit had yet to be felt.
Following the general election in December that year, Scottish Labour had had one MP in Scotland, the indomitable Ian Murray.
The SNP took 45 per cent of the popular vote, winning 48 seats at Westminster.
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Hide AdBut that was then, this is now. Scottish Labour is back and with a bang, winning 37 seats on 4 July, leaving the SNP with only nine MPs.
Nicola Sturgeon is reduced to touring TV studios and book festivals, only occasionally dropping into Holyrood.
Her husband has been charged with embezzlement. And her chosen successor, Humza Yousaf, lasted little over a year in the top job before falling out with the Scottish Greens and losing the confidence of his party, forcing veteran John Swinney to come out of semi-retirement on the backbenches to rescue his party and get the Scottish Government back on track.
There is no doubt that the shock of Covid and the cost of living crisis that followed has contributed to people’s disillusionment with the SNP, but their unpopularity has deeper roots.
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Hide AdFor a decade, the Scottish Government substituted political messaging for policy delivery.
Sturgeon and her team, which included John Swinney as her deputy, used photo-ops and empty slogans to try to convince voters that things were getting better, while pretending independence was just round the corner.
But as NHS waiting lists grew longer and the economy became weaker, people began to see beyond the rhetoric to the harsh reality of Scotland today – a country where its capital city has been forced to declare a housing emergency.
There is less than two years to go before the next Holyrood elections and if John Swinney is to cling on to power he needs his government to start delivering for the people of Scotland.
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Hide AdIronically, he may have to depend on the new Labour government to help him, a fact recognised by his deputy Kate Forbes only last week.
In her response to the King’s Speech, she said she looked forward to “meaningful engagement” with Prime Minister Starmer to “improve the lives of the people in Scotland”.
Changed days indeed, when the SNP depend on Scottish Labour to save their skin.
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