The last twelve months in Britain have seen a general election, leadership contests, council polls, mayoral races and even a parliamentary by-election – and the next year isn’t looking to be much quieter as the Scottish and Welsh parliamentary elections loom. The starting gun was fired on the race for Scotland’s Holyrood poll today, as party leaders from all sides of the Chamber took to podiums across the country to make their pitches to the public.
Speaking from Edinburgh this morning, SNP First Minister John Swinney celebrated an anniversary of his own: his first year in the top job, after he replaced his beleaguered predecessor Humza Yousaf in April last year. As I wrote yesterday, under Swinney’s leadership the party has found some stability: its support has risen in the polls to 35 per cent, there are fewer instances of overt infighting, the party’s head office has been reorganised in a DOGE-style manner to work more efficiently and the party is slowly but steadily moving away from an overly-progressive agenda dating back to the days of the coalition with the Scottish Greens.
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