“Well, the last time we spoke I was on the back benches having just lost a bruising - to use other people's words - leadership contest and here I am a year on as the Deputy First Minister – so who is to say that there aren't surprises in politics?” Kate Forbes took time to recover from that contest, her patience stretched thin by what she called “opinionated stupidity” and “fashionable morality”. A year on and now Deputy First Minister to John Swinney she said: “As a Highlander, I want to use the job as far as possible to demonstrate that rural areas are critically important to the national success.” It is perhaps her most central message – that local progress is the same thing as national progress.
She said of the SNP: “Our confidence is based on the fact that we have always won elections because we've had the trust of voters to get the job done – to deliver. “Under John Swinney, he's really clear that we want to govern from the centre left in the mainstream of public opinion. In other words, pragmatic practical policy.
” She brings together several points in one: local and national interest; national political action; and representing voters: “I'm really proud of the most recent Scottish Government budget because I see in that the roots of things that will get done. “I'm particularly proud of the huge increase in regeneration funding – so about £62 million of capital funding that can go on regeneration projects in town centres. “Now who w.
