SNP - like a Toytown constituency branch

If the fish-woman gets arrested shortly, as is widely speculated, the SNP’s humiliation will be complete.  In the major parties one sometimes encounters an apparently thriving constituency branch which completely folds when a long-time figurehead chairman departs and it transpires there was nothing else of substance there at all: the difference being that with larger parties there is genuine institutional depth, and a Head Office that can intervene to put things back on their feet.  Poor ‘Mo’ Yousaf** resembles the hapless constituency stooge left inheriting such a situation – but there is no Head Office by way of stability and superior resources for him to lean on; he’s it!  And it’ll turn out the camper van doesn’t actually belong to the SNP either: so, no holiday for him. 

Other illustrative parallels suggest themselves.  In the depths of History Corner there’s poor old Richard Cromwell in 1649; and more recently UKIP (remember that?) when Farage’s departure made it clear that it was less of an enduring political institution with depth and significance, and more of a shallow puddle with only one rather popular fish in it.

Let’s see if Starmer can strategise this one to his advantage.  It ought to be possible, but he shows every sign of being a one-trick pony, and a very wooden pony at that.  Watch for a clunky and unconvincing move towards a devo-max offering in an announcement from that quarter soon.

You’d need a heart of stone, etc etc.  Personally, I’m hoping this all assists in the noble cause of scuppering Sturgeon’s “trans self-ID” legislation once and for all.  Will Yousaf really go to the wall for that, in today’s circumstances?   

ND

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** There is no deeper insult than incorrectly rendering somebody’s name, which indicates to the victim you’ve no idea who they are really; don’t much care either; and are probably representative of everyone else, too.  I discovered this by accident as a journo on a student newspaper many decades ago, when a simple typo caused an absolute outpouring of distress and anger.  Sorry to say, callow and uncaring youth that I was, this then became something I deployed deliberately to offend – ten times more effective than mere abuse.  (And not even actionable!)