Indyref wrangling risks five more years of failure

The SNP is no more likely to stop demanding another independence referendum than the UK government is to grant one.

That John Swinney conveniently brushes over the suggestion that a majority of SNP MSPs would be required at this election to secure a rerun of 2014 is just politics. With Swinney now pointing to the pro-independence majority of the new Scottish Parliament with the Scottish Greens, it is clear we are being lined up for five more years of the same, tired and ultimately pointless constitutional wrangling.

The parliament has, after all, had a pro-independence majority for some time and nothing has progressed. The SNP’s mandate, such as it is at this election, is hardly rock solid. The opinion polls around support for independence have barely moved at all.

It is of course completely unreasonable to suggest the SNP would stop talking about their primary aim as a party. No one is seriously expecting that to happen.

But what cannot be allowed to happen in the new parliament is for this to become so all-encompassing that we simply accept five more years of failure.

The greatest campaigning tool at John Swinney’s disposal is to demonstrate competent government. Alex Salmond achieved a Holyrood majority in 2011 based in no small part on that. Since then, well we all know what has happened, but the SNP’s reputation for competence took something of a battering .

Today’s MSPs face a multitude of daunting challenges around the cost of living crisis, the appalling state of Scottish education, the crisis in the NHS, and a looming £5 billion black hole to boot. The new administration must have a laser-like focus on encouraging growth in the economy and exploiting the many opportunities which the energy and technological revolutions provide.

To get bogged down in fruitless wrangling with the UK government when we actually need both administrations working in harmony would be unforgivable.