What happens to a government which has been in office for nearly 20 years? It usually loses. What about a government which has been in office for nearly 20 years, and is overseeing economic growth of next to nothing, with increasing taxes and reducing public service performance? It definitely loses. What about a government which has been in office for nearly 20 years, is overseeing economic growth of next to nothing, with increasing taxes and reducing public service performance, whose first First Minister faced a criminal trial, whose second First Minister found a forensic tent in her garden, and whose third First Minister lasted barely a year amid the collapse of the governing coalition? Well, it simply can’t win, and political gravity will bury it.
Right? For sure, it felt that way on July 4, when the SNP lost one-third of its vote share and almost all of its seats at the General Election . With the Scottish Parliament election less than two years away, there was an instant and widespread presumption that the SNP’s bubble had been pricked, and that Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar should use First Minister’s Questions to ask for the measurements for the Bute House curtains. Read more by Andy Maciver Russell Findlay’s bright side The Lib Dems’ big chance But, wait.
The Labour year-long luxury honeymoon has turned into three months in a motel in Hull, with the shower stuck on cold and no lock on the door. For Mr Sarwar, Bute House suddenly seems half a world away..
