FMQs gets weird as naked electioneering takes Holyrood over completely

The Scottish Parliament carrying on with business-as-usual, almost right up until the general election, was always going to get weird.

And when I say “get weird”, I mean turn into naked, constant, exhausting electioneering. They’re not even trying to pretend otherwise anymore.

Today’s FMQs was the general election in Scotland in microcosm - right down to the small details, such as Douglas Ross being asked to “reflect on his conduct”.

In fairness to the Tory leader, this time he was only getting pulled up for heckling John Swinney, as opposed to stabbing his pal in the back. It’s progress of sorts.

Ross was typically animated taking on the First Minister over oil and gas - again, using the taunting nickname “Honest John” for which he was later forced to apologise.

In the North East, it’s a two-way tussle on July 4 between the SNP and the Conservatives, and the Tories see the Nats’ perceived flip-flopping on the North Sea as their biggest weapon.

First, Ross asked why Swinney “opposed” the Rosebank oil field. Later, he ramped it up: "The SNP oppose every single new oil and gas development in the North Sea."

And it’s a difficult point for Swinney to refute, simply because the Nationalists’ position on this is as clear as an oil slick in a mud field.

They once appeared on the brink of opposing new licences. Now, apparently, it’s on a “case-by-case basis”.

But on a day when the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling striking down an oil drilling scheme in England on climate grounds, the FM was on surer footing when he labelled Rishi Sunak’s plan for 100 new North Sea licences as “climate denial of the first order”.

Anas Sarwar’s attack lines on Swinney, on the NHS, were also best seen through the all-consuming prism of the election.

Labour know they will win seats off fed-up SNP voters if they make the connection between 17 years of Nationalist government and underperforming public services.

With one in six Scots on a waiting list - and pressure on A&Es, as Sarwar put it, leading to a “corridor care” crisis - he warned: “Long waits cost lives.”

Swinney said he “apologised unreservedly” to anyone who had experienced this - but swiftly brought it back to his party’s relentless message that a Keir Starmer Labour government will continue Tory austerity, crippling the NHS.

With a fortnight until polling day, apologising for the state of the NHS is probably a pastime Swinney would rather be avoiding.

But alas, there’s more to being First Minister of Scotland than running an election campaign.

Not that you’d necessarily know it from the way the party leaders were going on.

Patrick Harvie popped up too, to tell both Swinney and Sarwar he was more progressive than either of thou, with Greens’ flagship election pledge of a wealth tax to prove it.

The session was best summed up by Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone, who interrupted around the halfway mark to scold the politicians: “I would remind members that the chamber is not the place to campaign for a UK general election.”

Good one, Alison! That’s the best joke cracked in that place for ages.

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