LETTER FROM THE NORTH – SCOTLAND THE BRAVE!
April 29th, 2024
The disaster that is Humza Yousaf has finally resigned as First Minister of the devolved Scottish Parliament and the leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP).
This has been the cause of much rejoicing in the UK but paradoxically the devolved parliament will probably regain some of the lost appetite for independence that the Scots had been enduring under the Sturgeon and then the Yousaf administrations. It is undoubtedly a good thing for Scotland that he has gone, as he was making an absolute mess of the country due to his kowtowing to the whims of the Greens, with whom the SNP shared government. The downside is that a competent leader would rekindle some of the Independence appetite. There is no way that Yousaf would have got anywhere near independence, which suited the UK down to the ground; unfortunately, he (and Sturgeon) have ruined Scotland.
Scotland’s world-renowned education system has slipped and is now awful. It has the highest rates of deaths from drugs in Europe and its taxes are higher than the rest of the UK. Then there is the ferry scandal; a massive overspend for new ferries which have still not been delivered.
There is now a 28-day period during which the SNP have to select a new leader, and hence first minister, otherwise they will have to have a general election for the Holyrood seats. The SNP has collapsed into internecine warfare and is totally divided. The SNP has even more diverse views than the British Conservative Party, held together by the glue of the dream of independence. With the independence possibility fading, the SNP has just about collapsed. The most capable candidate, who has political nous, ability and commonsense, Kate Forbes will probably be overlooked again. Last time she came second to Yousuf. The problem with Forbes is that she is 34 and a staunch member of “the Wee Free”, the free Presbyterian church of Scotland. She has strong views on gay marriage (against) and was very much anti-all the gender recognition legislation that Yousaf was peddling.
She was a very capable Minister of Finance, fighting against some of the more hare-brained projects that Sturgeon and Yousaf were promoting. She was very much against the Green party, who in Scotland are so far to the left they probably think that Marx is right wing. The final feature that weighs against her is that she is from Dingwall in the Highlands and not part of either the Edinburgh or West Coast (Glasgow) mafia.
If elected, she will be a cause of concern for the Westminster Government as she would display political skills that Yousaf doesn’t have. She would be divisive, as the left-wingers in the SNP would take against her.
It may be that the departure of Yousaf has saved the SNP from a severe beating at the hands of Labour when the next UK election takes place later in the year. They were forecast to lose 75% of their Westminster seats, so Yousaf’s going may have saved them enough to avoid complete humiliation.
The Conservatives lodged a vote of no confidence against Yousaf, due to be held on Wednesday and it looked as though Yousaf would lose it.
There are 131 seats in the debating chamber. Of the total 131 seats, 129 are occupied by the Parliament’s elected MSPs and two are seats for the Scottish Law Officers—the Lord Advocate and the Solicitor General for Scotland, who are not elected members of the Parliament but are members of the Scottish Government. As such, the Law Officers may attend and speak in the plenary meetings of the Parliament but, as they are not elected MSPs, cannot vote.
Source The National Archives, 19 November 1998, 1998 c. 46 (s. 27), retrieved 29th April 2024.
It is apparent that 64 votes would be needed to win a vote (the speaker <Presiding Officer>) would have a casting vote and would always vote for the status quo.
Scottish National Party – 63 MSPs
Party leader – Humza Yousaf
Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party – 31 MSPs
Party leader – Douglas Ross
Scottish Labour – 22 MSPs
Party leader – Anas Sarwar
Scottish Green Party – 7 MSPs
Party leaders – Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater
Scottish Liberal Democrats – 4 MSPs
Party leader – Alex Cole-Hamilton
Alba Party – 1 MSP
Party leader – Ash Regan
If all the Opposition voted against Yousaf
No Party Affiliation – 1 MSP
Presiding Officer – Alison Johnstone
Source: The Scottish Parliament.
If all the opposition voted against Yousaf, then he would lose 63–65. However, if the Alba member voted with the SNP it would be a tie 64–64 and the Presiding Officer would have the casting vote. Ash Regan, the Alba member used to be a member of the SNP and defected to Alba (Alec Salmond’s new party) after she voiced her opinion against the gender legislation. Yousaf’s parting words about her to the media last year were, “she’s no great loss.”. That just about sums up Yousaf’s political nous.
Anyway, she presented a list of demands to Yousaf in return for supporting him. This list would have made it difficult for him to sell the demands to his deeply fragmented party and so she stated that she would not support him.
Hence his resignation: he didn’t have the numbers.