Mhairi Black's zinger shows the jokes are not all on the SNP as the party meltdown continues – Scotsman comment

The SNP’s once-iron discipline has disappeared, leaving behind a political soap opera

Sometimes in politics, it’s hard not to sit back and simply watch the drama unfold. And the ongoing SNP meltdown makes for compulsive viewing.

The latest spat saw Angus MacNeil suspended from the SNP’s Westminster group after a “tense exchange” with chief whip Brendan O’Hara, whom the Western Isles MP reportedly accused of being a bully. He is alleged to have described O’Hara as a “small wee man” and thrown some letters on the floor. He also tweeted some “general advice” that people should “always stand up to bullies... particularly those who scurry around shouting to anyone listening, ‘I'll get him, I'll get him, I WILL get him!...”

However, anyone thinking the SNP are descending into farce should beware, not all the jokes are on them. After Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden politely said how sorry he was that Mhairi Black would be standing down as an MP, she thanked him for his “kind words”, agreed they’d started in the Commons at the same time, then added a zinger: “And I'm pretty sure we'll be leaving at the same time.” Amid general laughter, Dowden saw the funny side.