Calls Grow for the SNP to Govern, Not Play Games

A rather amusing photo that plopped into my in-box today. Nicola Sturgeon is still head and shoulders about the opposition, but she has managed to make Ruth Davidson's Tories look as if they are not completely insane. All Davidson had to do was remind people that this is a government, and not a collection of student union activists, and that she has done rather well of late, helped by the SNP.

The problem is that the SNP really is a campaigning outfit, which exists to push for independence. Its members seem to have little or no interest in governing the country, which is a pity because when they set their mind to it the SNP can govern rather well. However, when they balls it up, they do that quite spectacularly as well.

Today I went along to a conference that discussed the Named Person wheeze, which was recently declared unlawful by the UK Supreme Court. Jim Sillars was one of the speakers, and he made the point that this lunatic bit of authoritarian legislation was passed by a parliament that sits for only three days a week, from 9.00am to 5.00pm. This flawed legislation, which aimed at putting parents under the thumb of the social work industry, was passed by the SNP dominated Holyrood with minimal objections to its poorly drafted wording. Sillars went on to say that in Westminster every line of a bill is considered, but in Holyrood there was not the requisite amount of time needed to do that, with the result that flawed legislation was passed.

You can bet that the SNP will dedicate even less time to sorting out disasters like this now that they are back into full campaigning mode for IndyRef 2.