Brian Monteith: Alex can hardly bear to continue

Published on Thursday 9 September 2010 15:32

Alex Salmond made what should be his last opening of Parliament as First Minister this week. His administration looks tired with its burden of running the country.

I generalise of course - there are many ministers that still have a spring in their step, such as Mike Russell and Bruce Crawford, and are either bursting with ideas or looking for the next square go with the opposition. Nevertheless, after a long honeymoon of a start the gloss has definitely come off Salmond's government and the Labour arty now smells blood.

That is not to say Alex Salmond should be written off. He is by far the most capable of the leaders and he will run a stronger campaign next year than the practically invisible effort he produced for Westminster.

Nevertheless, the presentation of the legislative programme for the SNP's last year of this parliament showed a lack of courage or ambition. If ever there was a time to show a grasp of economic reality and use the public spending cuts as an opportunity rather than a problem this was it and again the ball has been dropped.

Instead the mantra that it is London's fault is still being trotted out - ignoring the blindingly obvious fact that the London government of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown only got their way because of the Labour MPs that Scotland (and Wales) sent south.

As if that inconvenient truth should not be enough to correct the SNP's self delusion that Scotland had no role in what has befallen us all, Scotland then voted for Labour again this year - clearly believing that even if that party were to blame that it deserved forgiveness and another chance.

It is this disconnect with the public about public spending cuts and that we are all in it together that I believe has especially undermined Alex Salmond's personal standing. Punting the line, ad nauseum, that everything would be rosy if only Scotland were independent just does not wash. It's not independence that would make the difference it's what Salmond would do with it that matters for his case to be convincing - and he has said nothing that leads one to believe that if Scotland had all the independence of Ireland or Iceland that Alex Salmond and his SNP would not have made the same mistakes and borrowed too heavily and spent too highly in the same way that delivered economic ruin in those countries.

The result has been that the strategy to hold a referendum on independence has now completely unravelled - to his severe embarrassment.

Politicians normally call for a referendum if they see advantage in it for them. In Salmond's case it was that if he could pull it off he would have the best chance to deliver independence of any SNP leader ever. If he was defeated in Parliament and denied the referendum he could claim victimhood and nurse a grievance that would send voters flocking to back him at the polls through a sense of injustice.

The First Minister never reckoned on the impact the recession would have on the public desire, or lack of it, for a referendum.

At a time of severe economic pressures being asked about independence is just not a priority. So, unable to win in parliament he has also had to drop his referendum and his grievance without nursing anything other than his own hurt pride.

Word is, he is now bored, that he feels penned in; that the limitations of the job have turned him into the political equivalent of a polar bear walking up and down its pen, going through the motions, occasionally making a splash but mostly sleep walking.

Word is that the SNP MSPs are already talking of life after Salmond, asking themselves questions such as who will lead the team in opposition and should they become more of a fundamentalist Tartan Taliban?

But don't write Salmond off, there are few things more dangerous in the political zoo than a cornered bear.

A family matter

THE death of David Cameron's father is of great personal sadness to the Prime Minister and his immediate friends and family. It is not an issue of national importance.

Am I alone in being irritated by some television news channels elevating Ian Cameron's death this week to the first item of their news bulletins?

The contemporary practice of turning our politicians into matey celebrities who feel our pain and in turn want us to feel theirs has debased our politics to the point that the electorate hears less about the issues than they do of politicians' sexual proclivities, drinking habits and preferences between them collecting Corgi or Dinky cars.

No wonder they are held in such low esteem.

I wouldn't mind so much if ITV could do a decent job of entertaining me but the ITN news followed what must be one of the most risible episodes of Midsomer Murders that I have ever suffered.

Tonight I'll be watching a DVD of a John Wayne movie made when men were men and politicians kept their families to themselves.