The Spectator

Sturgeon and the impunity of the SNP

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Scottish politics tends to go through long bouts of single-party dominance. In the 19th century, the Liberals were in charge. After the war, Labour reigned unchallenged, which is why, in 1997, it drew up a devolution settlement on the assumption that Scotland would always be its fiefdom. But Scottish Labour then imploded. The Scottish National party is now the only game in town.

Yet there are signs Nicola Sturgeon’s party is stumbling into the pitfalls that await all parties who spend too long in office. Incumbency eventually renders even the most alert and focused political practitioners complacent. Like Scottish Labour before it, the SNP has become arrogant, secretive and controlling. Parties are at their strongest when they can see the potential for their own defeat. The SNP can no longer imagine Scotland being run by anyone else.

Lacking robust opposition at Holyrood, the nationalists fight each other instead. The sacking of Joanna Cherry this week from the party’s frontbench at Westminster was a ruthless strike against an internal critic who, in a normal party, would have been punished with a few off-the-record briefings to the press. But the SNP is not a normal party. It operates more like a bloc vote.

The SNP can no longer imagine Scotland being run by anyone else

Whether at Holyrood or Westminster, elected representatives almost never vote against the party. The rule book for MPs mandates that ‘no member shall… publicly criticise a group decision, policy or another member’. Cherry had become open in her misgivings about Sturgeon’s leadership. She was particularly concerned about the SNP’s almost total embrace of the transgender agenda. She has now paid the price.

The devolved government in Edinburgh is easily the least scrutinised ministry anywhere in the UK, if not further afield.

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