Brian Wilson: ‘Nicola Sturgeon’s decision to bring the Scottish Greens into government contributed to a flow of policy disasters’
That segment of the electorate contains many who shifted their voting allegiance after the 2014 independence referendum. Given the binary choice between independence and thethey opted for the former which then led them into voting SNP at subsequent elections. The lasting effect of the referendum was to make the constitution, rather than class, the dominant dividing line in Scottish politics.
Ms Sturgeon’s decision to bring the Scottish Greens into government contributed to a flow of policy disasters and helped lead the Scottish Government into the mire of gender politics. To the vast majority of the Scottish electorate, this occupied a low priority in the midst of various crises, from cost of living through health to education. Then Ms Sturgeon was gone.
The SNP’s message is that only they can effectively represent Scottish interests at Westminster, pending independence, and the feet of any UK government must be held to the fire. It is not particularly plausible and some older heads in the SNP have warned that the mantra of there being no difference between Labour and Tory governments does not carry the ring of truth for Scottish voters.