Humza Yousaf could save the Union

At the heart of Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation statement there came a moment of self-awareness that one does not often encounter among those at the top of the political tree.

While Sturgeon insisted that there was majority support in Scotland for independence, she acknowledged that it needed to grow further in order to prevail. ‘To achieve that, we must reach across the divide in Scottish politics. And my judgment now is that a new leader will be better able to do this,’ she said.

So it is bizarre that less than a fortnight later the bookies’ odds point to SNP members leaning to the view that the person they should turn to is Humza Yousaf, a middle-wit purveyor of boilerplate nationalist soundbites and opinion.

The Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross was able to eviscerate Yousaf’s record in office in the Scottish parliament this week, claiming that in a rational world the Health and Social Care Secretary would be getting sacked rather than ‘failing upwards’. Yousaf glared at him, exhibiting no sign of being able to come up with an Alex Salmond-style witticism or a Sturgeon-like piledriver response.

There is already a viral video on social media highlighting a previous rant of Yousaf’s about the high percentage of senior jobs in Scottish public life filled by white people. At times he appears almost to spit out the word ‘white’. At no point in the clip does he acknowledge that 96 per cent of the population of Scotland is white or that among the over-45s who predominantly occupy the most senior roles that percentage will be even higher.

No doubt there is a constituency among white Scots that will have swallowed whole the notions of white privilege and white guilt which are so fashionable on the identitarian left. But it is unlikely to be a very big constituency. So it is unclear how Yousaf’s performance could be said to amount to ‘reaching across the divide’ in a way Sturgeon was unable to achieve.

By contrast Kate Forbes, Yousaf’s main leadership rival, is clearly able to do just that. She has become something of a darling among social conservatives in recent days, in part owing to her straightforward espousing of her personal, religiously-informed views. She has a pleasant and eloquent communication style to boot. Some Unionist-inclined voters are already suffering from cognitive dissonance over her leadership bid – finding themselves rooting for her before remembering that a victory for Yousaf would be far more advantageous to their own cause. That shows just what a dangerous weapon she could become for separatism.

If SNP members really do plump for Yousaf ahead of her then it can only be because of her views on social policy, an area in which he has been content to go along with Sturgeon’s positioning in public (though even he went missing in action during voting on gay marriage some years back).

But if SNP members rank social policy stances ahead of maximising the prospects for the separatist cause then are they truly separatists at all? Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say that in truth they have become de facto Devo Maxxers – content to think of themselves as living in a socially progressive country able to pull significant levers in that direction whenever it chooses?

And if the SNP elite makes the same decision to elevate Mr Core Vote ahead of Mrs Fresh Voice then won’t the same suspicion apply to it as well? Perhaps being an MSP or being employed by an MSP, with all its gravy train perks, has become the main thing: Free to moan about ‘London rule’ but ultimately content enough with the status quo as not to take every decision according to what is most likely to further the independence dream.

As a Unionist, one would hope to find a more positive way of sustaining the United Kingdom whole and intact than this. But if it is the best that is on offer then we must take it.