CHARLIE WHELAN: So they picked the one they like, not the one who’d win
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When Tony Blair was first elected leader of the Labour Party he told the trade union leaders who had voted for him that he knew they didn’t support him for his political views but because they thought he would win the election for Labour.
The Scottish nationalists members seem to have taken the opposite view by electing a leader they like, rather than one that’s a winner.
As Kate Forbes so rightly pointed out Humza Yousaf has failed in every job he’s had but that doesn’t bother the zealots in the SNP even though less than half of them gave him a first preference vote.
The last thing this country needs right now is a Nationalist continuity candidate as First Minister.
We need some one who can unite the nation not continue to divide it. Instead we will have a First Minister elected by just 25,000 people who will continue to lead with failed polices.
Every single opinion poll published since Nicola Sturgeon chucked it in has had Kate Forbes as the most popular candidate amongst the general public and if the SNP members really wanted to elect a winner they would have given Kate the job as leader.
Now I personally have no time for her views either on social issues or the economy but the public see her for being a rare species amongst Nationalist and that’s someone with integrity and honesty.
She never hid her views unlike Humza who pretended to have an important meeting in order to avoid voting for gay marriage and thus upsetting his Muslim constituents.
Kate Forbes was and honest just said she would have voted against had she been an MSP at the time.
The SNP now have a leader who is not only incompetent but has little support from the wider public.
The party has lied and lied again about their real membership figures and are now facing a police enquiry into money donated for independence campaigning but allegedly burgled by SNP themselves.
One tiny group of people who will welcome Humza are the Scottish greens. They are the tail that wags the SNP dogs tail even though they represent so few people.
Their insistence on supporting separation effectively means giving up on half the Scottish electorate who may support green issues.
They will no doubt continue to prop up the Nationalists until we get the chance to kick them out.
I see that Keir Starmer was up in Inverness last week and has visited Scotland no less than four times since Sturgeon resigned. I fully expect to see much more of him here in Scotland over the next few months.
Labour can now see that with the SNP falling apart more people will give a vote to them as the chance to get rid of the Tories.
• One of the genuine pleasures of living in the strath is being near to so many whisky distilleries but until last week I didn’t know much about them.
That all changed when I went to a Speyside whisky tasting in Dulnain Bridge village hall. A great time was had by all but I think I may have drunk slightly too many drams as I can’t now remember anything the expert told us!
Charlie Whelan (Labour) is former spokesman for Gordon Brown.
