The SNP leadership contest, between Kate Forbes, Humza Yousaf and Ash Regan, seems to prove why political parties should not wash their dirty linen in public. But when there’s nowhere else to do it, the public arena becomes the only location in town. And despite the rancour on display, maybe this long postponed outpouring of difference is no bad thing.
The airing of grievance can only be put off for so long by any governing party – especially one so large that eyebrows were raised this week when “only” 78,000 voting cards were reportedly dispatched – if true, this would be a 30% drop in SNP membership since 2014. But it would still be more than the entire UK membership of the Lib Dems.
