Final FMQs for Douglas Ross whose bid to go out with a bang ends in a whimper

Perhaps fancying himself a bit like Al Pacino at the end of ‘Scarface’, Douglas Ross tried to use his final FMQs to go out all guns blazing.

And there are passing similarities. The Tories’ enemies - chiefly, the voters - are indeed at the gates and about to storm the mansion. But alas, it didn’t quite go as planned for our Douglas.

Because if you remember the film, Scarface had some decent firepower and pretty good aim for his doomed last stand. Ross, on the other hand, took the intriguing approach of spraying his bullets every which way.

He started on strong enough ground, taking John Swinney to task on delayed discharges and “devastating delays in cancer treatment” on the NHS. But rather than pinning the FM down on that, Ross proceeded to start yelling about topics seemingly as they popped into his head.

Roads! Attainment gap! Violent crime! Oil and gas! Independence! Division! It was like a singer no one wants to listen to putting out a Greatest Hits album.

That unfocused, scattergun approach was easy pickings for Swinney to talk about, basically, whatever he liked - everything from a spiel on “why independence matters” to the economic policies of Margaret Thatcher.

And he roasted his Tory counterpart with the barb: “I don’t really think Douglas Ross is in a position to go on at me about division when his colleagues behind him have told him to get out of office.”

Ross might have thought he was in a gunfight but Swinney thought he was in soft play. Not so much out with a bang but a whimper.

But at this point, no one really cared anyway. Not even the MSPs wanted to be there, in this last session before the summer holidays - the Holyrood chamber pockmarked with dozens of empty seats.

With the general election campaign about to reach its frenetic apex, most of them were probably thinking of other places they’d rather be.

The one place we know Douglas Ross won’t be come September is in the Tory leader’s seat. Few tears will be shed. Say goodbye to our little friend.

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