SNP is pushing progressive voters into the arms of Labour

Most progressive voters thought the SNP couldn’t sink further in their estimation after a run of comments by Kate Forbes which evoked Scotland’s repressive past. She wouldn’t have voted for gay marriage, thinks sex or children outside marriage is wrong, believes women shouldn’t be church ministers, and wrote this about feminism: “You can give me your culturally sensitive, historically contextualised and feminist-power arguments. But you’ll forgive me, I hope, if I choose to believe the One who loves me with an everlasting love, who made me and who died for me before I believe you.”

However, then Ash Regan started talking to the press. Initially, she seemingly toyed with the idea of ending the Union through some unilateral declaration of independence. Regan said if Yes parties won a majority at an election it would be a “clear declaration from the people of Scotland about their intention”, adding: “This has got nothing to do with the UK Government. Scotland is not going to be asking anyone’s permission in order to become self-governing.”

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In Regan’s imagination, Scotland can barnstorm to independence, but rest assured the international community would treat us like a pariah at the very moment when we emerged onto the world’s stage and needed friends. Such a preposterous suggestion would set an independent Scotland and England on to an immediate hostile footing. It would also trigger understandable fury from unionists. It’s Brexit on crystal meth.

However, Regan then cited Ireland and America’s route to independence if Westminster refused to negotiate, without mentioning, of course, bloody revolutionary wars in both instances, or the partition of Ireland. These comments came in the same interview where Regan said that anyone unsure about independence shouldn’t vote for the SNP. Way to win an election. Her wish may well come true.

One wonders who is advising Regan. She is being made to look ridiculous before the entire country. Her comments are frankly dangerous, and, given that they came in the wake of the shooting of a police officer in Northern Ireland, utterly repugnant.

Of course, these are just the main "what the hell" moments. There’s a host of other troublesome suggestions afoot, if you’re progressively inclined. Both Regan and Forbes apparently plan unravelling Nicola Sturgeon’s green agenda. Regan has hinted at ditching the Greens, and getting cosy with Alex Salmond’s Alba oddballs.

Nor can Regan see anything wrong in sending her children to private school when she was a member of a Government that asked to be judged on its education record. How she squares her allegedly left-wing credentials with elitist education is a mystery.

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Neither Forbes nor Regan seems to want to challenge Conservative plans to block gender recognition legislation passed by Holyrood. It’s baffling from a pro-independence position. Whether one supports or opposes the legislation, this law flows from the Scottish Parliament, and it is for the Scottish Parliament to amend or repeal the Act as our representatives see fit.

To not resist Conservative interference, on a strict devolutionary principle, seems to betray the very essence of independence. Little wonder that Westminster’s unionist parties treat the Scottish Parliament with contempt. Why should they offer any respect, if SNP parliamentarians appear to not respect devolution themselves?

So far Humza Yousaf has kept himself out of such damaging culture wars. There’s been attempts to undermine his claims that he supports equal marriage, but they haven’t stuck. Yousaf is blatantly the continuity Sturgeon candidate.

However, even if he wins the contest the damage has already been done. Progressive voters have seen too much. Scales have fallen from eyes. Even with a liberal centrist like Yousaf at the helm, how could anyone who calls themselves progressive vote for a party in which so many clearly believe in cruel Victorian notions of morality, or hold dangerous ideas about the route to independence?

This all casts a strange light on Nicola Sturgeon’s legacy. She clearly deserves admiration for her remarkable powers in holding this crazy coalition together. But progressives are also allowed to feel rather cheated.

Sturgeon told Scotland her party was progressive and liberal, when it truth it was filled with people who are anything but progressive or liberal. This will stick in the heads of many voters. If Yousaf wins, who takes over once he leaves? Academic analysis shows the SNP is less socially progressive than imagined. Forbes is favoured by SNP supporters.

'Sturgeon told Scotland her party was progressive and liberal, when it truth it was filled with people who are anything but progressive or liberal' (Image: Newsquest)

These curdled loyalties may explain the chaos at the end of Sturgeon’s reign. How could anyone govern a country with their party so riven? The SNP cannot even agree a map to independence. The bottom line is this: the SNP lied about what it really is; it showed one face to the people – a smiling, happy, cuddly, progressive face – when in reality, behind closed doors it was like an American family at Thanksgiving, with the lefty-liberals barely able to sit beside their Trump-supporting relatives.

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The SNP, under Yousaf at least, might be able to navigate a way out of this disaster if it wasn’t for a resurgent Labour Party. Clearly, Labour’s brand in Scotland is damaged badly through its embrace of Brexit. But the wind is behind Labour. It will win the next General Election.

There are plenty of progressive Scots who will feel so alienated now by what they’ve seen within SNP ranks that they could hold their noses and vote red just to get the Conservatives out. The key question is: what matters more to them? Faint hopes of independence via an untrustworthy SNP? Or ending Tory rule?

A council by-election in Aberdeen last week had the SNP down 10.5%, Labour up 8.2%, and Conservatives only down 1%. It’s just one poll, but the direction of travel is SNP to Labour. It’s hard to see how the SNP can ever convince progressive voters that it’s trustworthy again. Genies, unfortunately, don’t go back into bottles.