Derek Mackay scandal will not bring down SNP - Brian Monteith

The normality of political scandal will give the SNP government protection, argues Brian Monteith.

The highly embarrassing scandal surrounding the conduct of the SNP’s former finance secretary is paradoxically both threatening to the SNP remaining in power and yet the normal stuff of politics that will make little difference.

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Nicola Sturgeon was questioned about Mr Mackay's conduct in FMQs last week. Picture: PANicola Sturgeon was questioned about Mr Mackay's conduct in FMQs last week. Picture: PA
Nicola Sturgeon was questioned about Mr Mackay's conduct in FMQs last week. Picture: PA

Derek Mackay’s repeated texts to a 16-year-old that would fit the accepted definition of grooming were they sent to a younger person mean he cannot be judged a fit or proper person to be a member of the Scottish Parliament, never mind a minister of the government. The repeated texts were not an error, a silly mistake, a misunderstanding or a one-off – they were, as Labour’s Richard Leonard correctly pointed out, an abuse of power.

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Would we not expect a schoolteacher to be struck off for such conduct? Yet politicians who create the statutes governing those who deal with school pupils are able to live by different, more relaxed laws.

Whether or not Mackay should resign as an MSP with immediate effect should not be left solely to him, as the SNP’s deputy leader has said, but be demanded of him by those parliamentarians who believe they have any decency coursing through their veins. The SNP could have demonstrated it has a moral code higher than any other party by taking a firmer stand, and yet the initial reaction of the First Minister’s media team appears to have been to try and shut the story down.

Derek Mackay.Derek Mackay.
Derek Mackay.

It prompts the obvious question of how many other such incidents of embarrassing behaviour have never seen the light of day because of media manipulation?

What is hard to fathom is why, on learning of Mackay’s messaging of a young boy was to appear in a tabloid, the First Minister did not sack him with immediate effect for misconduct rather than let him offer and then accept his resignation? Politics can be a cruel game, but the First Minister, who in such circumstances has the duty to represent us all, owed Mr Mackay nothing, not even the time to pack his personal effects. Instead his resignation looks to have been choreographed for the media, suggesting the First Minster was more concerned about her own faltering grasp on power, the blackening reputation of her party now accustomed to being mired in salacious and financial controversy – and how these might feed into the Holyrood elections next year.

The Derek Mackay scandal will not bring down the SNP government. A new finance secretary will take office and the Scottish Government will seek to move on as normal – blaming

Westminster for all Scotland’s ills, propagating more grievances to build a sense of injustice, cranking-up expectations of an independence referendum or a referendum denied, and encouraging us to believe we are different from the rest of our island’s people – all the while neglecting the perilous state of our education, health, transport and policing services.

There is much more embarrassment to come; such as the Alex Salmond trial and the Natalie McGarry retrial. The former First Minister can be relied upon to give no quarter to others even in his own party in seeking to defend himself from 14 charges. Again the questions being raised go beyond what Salmond did or did not do, but ask what the First Minister knew and how she then conducted herself and her government.

On the back of the Derek Mackay scandal the worst case scenario for the SNP must be that, following evidence in court, as yet unknown revelations about Ms Sturgeon’s conduct in handling the accusations against Salmond makes her position untenable.

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Yet even that would simply mean the First Minister would be replaced and another ministerial merry-go-round would fill the gaps. A political crisis, yes, but an existential one for those believing in secession from the United Kingdom? Hardly.

Those unionists who think a highly colourful and salacious trial of Salmond will set back the fortunes of the SNP will, I believe, be disappointed. Likewise, any damaging repercussions for

Ms Sturgeon, will be just that – limited to her as her party goes into damage limitation mode.

The SNP’s supporters are not homogenous; some behave like cultists admiring and admonishing their leaders like Stalin or Mao once were; others are more ideological, pursuing the righteousness of Scottish independence whoever is at the helm; and then there are those who simply vote for them. None of these groups will be deflected.

Just as SNP supporters are not moved by the cold rational facts of economic statistics that point to austerity-max being suffered by the Scottish people following secession from the UK,or appear to care about the demonstrable implosion of Scottish public services – so too will they be unmoved by Mackay’s behaviour or that of the Scottish Government.

There have been times in the past, and there could be times in the future when Scotland again puts more into the UK than it takes out. What then of the economic case for remaining in the UK? Unionists should be preaching the benefits of solidarity and community and aspiring for Scotland to be able to help those around the United Kingdom, just as we would appreciate assistance when Scotland might require it.

Similarly, other parties have had their scandals be they financial, sexual or moral (and often a combination of both). That the SNP now has a record as long, colourful and ignominious as the other parties does not mean it must lose power. Humans err, and no party can therefore have a monopoly over personal ethics. While the Westminster bubble can be guilty of navel gazing so too is there a Holyrood bubble that is detached from Scotland’s reality. Most Scots probably do not know who Derek Mackay is, and care even less.

The unionist opposition parties in Holyrood need to consider what is it that will ensure they not only maintain their electoral majority in percentage terms – but how they grow and motivate support to have a parliamentary majority to deliver a coalition government.

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Relying on scandals or bad economic news is not good enough. Let’s hear the positive case for the United Kingdom and how unionists can work together to deliver it.

Brian Monteith is editor of ThinkScotland.org