When it rains for Scotland’s Nats, it pours. It now transpires – according to the Scottish government’s very own survey – that between 2022 and 2023, the proportion of people who trust the SNP government has plummeted by a staggering 10 points. And that’s not all. Trust in all six public sector institutions has declined markedly in the last 12 months, with the results presenting a rather concerning picture for the SNP ahead of the 2026 Holyrood elections. Not that Mr S can say he’s particularly shocked…
The Scottish government saw public trust fall from 55 per cent in 2022 to a mere 45 per cent the following year, while faith in Scotland’s justice system fell by nine percentage points in the same period. Steerpike would take this opportunity to point out that police probe into the SNP’s funds and finances, Operation Branchform, remains ongoing…
On top of that, trust in policing plummeted by five points in the 12-month period, while local government, the civil service and the education sector all saw trust decline by six points. Rather curiously public trust in the health service only weakened by 1 per cent – although Mr S can imagine that next year’s report will see this gap widen a little more dramatically.
The figures follow a rather turbulent period for the Nats – and that's putting it mildly. Nicola Sturgeon's resignation in 2023 saw the party descend into chaos, with the once tight-knit bunch all too keen to air their dirty laundry during the leadership race. Then came the police probe into the party's funds and finances, during which former chief executive Peter Murrell was charged with embezzlement. Currently, both his wife Dear Leader Nicola Sturgeon and ex-SNP treasurer Colin Beattie remain under investigation.
Hapless Humza Yousaf broke off the coalition agreement with the Scottish Greens rather abruptly before he himself was forced to surrender the top job, while current First Minister John Swinney has overseen Michael Matheson's £11,000 iPad scandal and Neil Gray's recent football fiasco. Meanwhile, Scotland's poverty-related attainment gap continues to rise, the government's progressive income tax system is frustrating taxpayers who see no improvement to their public services and the latest report by Audit Scotland warns politicians that NHS Scotland is increasingly 'unlikely to be able to meet growing demand'. Cheery stuff, eh?
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