Bankcrupties, as Ernest Hemingway put it, happen “in two ways — gradually and then suddenly”. That quip captures the tragi-farce playing out in the SNP. The party which rode the high horse of Scottish nationalism as the governing party at Holyrood since 2007 also captured support south of the border. Those southeners enjoyed seeing a punchy Nicola Sturgeon give the Tory government a bloody nose over everything from Covid regulations to Boris Johnson — “a disgrace to the office” — and gender politics.
Now the boot has switched foot. Even the native Glaswegian Armando Iannucci’s comedies about the pile-up of absurdities which politics can produce look like pale imitations of the SNP’s plight. The “in previous episodes” review tells us that Sturgeon resigned before she was pushed. A heady mix was brewing of internal score-settling and concerns over allegations of financial mismanagement aimed at Peter Murrell, her husband and chief executive of the party. An ongoing investigation into Murrell’s activities has resulted in the police towing away a large caravan from his parents’ home in unexplained circumstances. The hastily elected new SNP leader, Humza Yousaf, is starting to look like a transitional candidate. He had the humiliating task of revealing that he had no idea that the party’s own financial auditors had resigned six months ago — and no other firm could be found prepared to take on the job.
