He’s not the man to lead Scotland to independence, but after a turbulent few years, he’s the safe pair of hands the party needs, says Herald columnist Dani Garavelli
He’s not the man to lead Scotland to independence, but after a turbulent few years, he’s the safe pair of hands the party needsof the Scottish National party has been called a “coronation”. Yet the smooth handover of power that took place yesterday was not a given. That the party avoided another acrimonious battle – like the one last year between his predecessor Humza Yousaf and former finance secretary Kate Forbes – was down to his deft handling of would-be rivals.
This need for reconciliation was also at the heart of his acceptance speech. In it, he said public discourse had become too polarised, the SNP too split and the parliament too adversarial. He promised to reach out to those pro-independence factions that have felt ignored, as well as to other parties whose support he may need now that the coalition with the Scottish Greens has been jettisoned and his minority government is stuck building vote-by-vote alliances.
How long this unexpected detente will last is anyone’s guess. Many challenges lie ahead. Promising to focus on “bread and butter” issues, Swinney told reporters his top priority would be tackling child poverty. But tackling child poverty was Yousaf’s top priority, too. And Nicola Sturgeon’s. Though the Scottish child payment has gone some way to mitigate against Westminster’s austerity policies, child poverty remains intractable.
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