SNP failures an open goal for new Tories leader Douglas Ross – Murdo Fraser

In under a week since he was announced as the New Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross has certainly hit the ground running. With a new jobs plan for Scotland on the way, plans to devolve powers out of Edinburgh, proposals to assist the Aberdeen economy, and the backing of a visit from the UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak – currently the most popular politician in the country – we have seen a flurry of initiatives in just a few days. Amongst all this, Douglas even found the time to run the line as assistant referee at Sunday’s Rangers v St Mirren match.

The appointment of part-time assistant referee Douglas Ross has galvanised the Conservatives at Holyrood. Picture: Willie Vass/Pool via Getty Images

The role of an opposition party in any political system is to both present itself as an alternative government, with a suite of positive policy initiatives, and to oppose the incumbents, highlighting their failures. Already, the new Scottish Conservative leader has shown his ability to fulfil the former role, with just the very first in what will be a series of policy announcements, setting out what we would do differently were we to be trusted with the government of Scotland after the next Holyrood elections.

In relation to the secondary role of opposition, we have been left with an enormous opportunity from the SNP Government’s failures on our education system. For years there have been rumbling concerns around the Curriculum for Excellence, and in particular the focus on skills over knowledge, with the consequence of a wide attainment gap between pupils from better off, and less well off, backgrounds. We saw the SNP promise, and then ditch, a flagship Education Reform Act. There was then the chaos of the school reopening plans for this week, with teachers spending many hours working on a blended learning model only for the Education Secretary John Swinney to do a last-minute U-turn and announce that all pupils should return to school full-time.

As if all that were not bad enough, we now see the chaos of this year’s exam results, with downgrading of teachers’ estimates of awards disadvantaging those from poorer socio-economic backgrounds. It is a situation which has been handled disastrously by the SNP Government, and understandably there is fury from pupils and parents alike.

Thanks to pressure from the Scottish Conservatives and other opposition parties, we have now seen another significant U-turn from John Swinney, but this cannot take away from the fact that under his watch an unacceptable situation was allowed to develop in the first place. It is unsurprising that there are calls for his resignation: far from this being an isolated failure in the field of education, it is just the latest episode in a saga of underperformance from an Education Secretary who has been unable to restore Scottish education to the standing it once held.

As my former MSP colleague Brian Monteith reminded us in these columns on Monday, it is exactly 20 years ago that we saw the last SQA exams disaster under the watch of the then Education Minister Sam Galbraith. His SNP shadow at the time was one Nicola Sturgeon, who was quick to demand Galbraith’s head stating that he was “out of touch, out of his depths and should be out of office”.

By Nicola Sturgeon’s own standards, surely the same must apply to her Education Secretary John Swinney. With a motion of no confidence in him now lodged at Holyrood, it will be interesting to see whether the Scottish Green Party actually has the backbone to stand up to its SNP masters for once, or whether it will once again meekly fall into line, despite all the fine words from their education spokesman Ross Greer.

The exams fiasco exposes that all is not well at the heart of the SNP Government. Nicola Sturgeon has enjoyed strong public ratings throughout the Covid-19 crisis, being a permanent fixture on our television screens, and on almost every action waiting to see what Westminster does first, then learning lessons, before deciding to move. It is instructive that on the school exams issue the timing has meant that the Scottish Government have had to go first, rather than take a wait-and-see approach, and the consequences are there for everyone to see.

This episode also highlights how the SNP lack anyone behind Nicola Sturgeon who is a credible face. John Swinney’s reputation as a safe pair of hands in government now lies in tatters. Other Scottish Government Cabinet Secretaries have been noticeable over the last few months only by their absence from public platforms. Now, more than ever, we have a government, and a party, entirely reliant on one individual.

This fact has not gone unnoticed within the SNP, with internal dissent building over Sturgeon’s presidential style of leadership, and concerns raised on issues around candidate selection, and thorny political questions such as reform of the Gender Recognition Act. And we still await the fallout from the Parliamentary inquiry into the handling of the complaints against the former First Minister Alex Salmond – an inquiry at which both he, and Sturgeon, will be required to give evidence on oath.

As of yesterday, Holyrood is now back in session, and the change in mood amongst Scottish Conservative MSPs is palpable. With an energetic new leader, the beginnings of a policy platform, and an incumbent SNP Government showing more failures by the day, the opportunities are enormous. The Scottish Tories are eager, refreshed, and up for the fight.

It may simply be an accident of timing, but Douglas Ross has become Scottish Conservative leader at a point when the SNP Government has lost its reputation for competence, and is now facing more internal difficulties than ever before. Sometimes political leaders just need to have luck on their side, and maybe history will show that Douglas stepped up at just the right time.

Murdo Fraser is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife