SNP chaos is still a Salmond and Sturgeon soap opera while hard-working families suffer

Humza Yousaf won the SNP leadership by promising to be the Nicola Sturgeon continuity candidate.

A year later her agenda is in tatters and the FM is being forced into a negotiation with Alex Salmond to save his job. It is an incredible situation that shows how large the shadows of Salmond and Sturgeon continue to loom over Scots politics.

Yousaf has reluctantly dropped many Sturgeon era policies such as the GRR Bill and her power-sharing deal with the Greens. The former leader has been arrested and questioned by police in relation to an alleged fraud at SNP HQ and her husband Peter Murrell has been charged.

Meanwhile Salmond has emerged as a party power broker having been cleared of sexual misconduct allegations he believes to have been the product of an internal plot orchestrated by Sturgeon’s supporters. It is a melodrama that will continue for many years to come and you wouldn’t bet against it ending up on the big screen.

Just what the people of Scotland are getting out of it as the country struggles to get through the worst cost of living crisis in living memory is however far from clear. The NHS is on its knees, schools are in the doldrums and the economy is on life support.

But the Scottish Government has proven incapable of even building a couple of ferries let alone tackling any of these major issues. As things stand Yousaf’s survival could rely on convincing Alba’s only MSP Ash Regan to support him despite the fact they despise each other.

If he is forced to resign, the SNP’s chances of survival in government will rely on finding a candidate for First Minister who is acceptable to the Greens. In short therefore anyone hoping for the chaos to end any time soon is likely to be sadly disappointed.

The Salmond v Sturgeon soap opera will continue but at what cost to millions of hard-working families who deserve a functioning parliament?

Stroke savvy

Strokes are the third most common cause of death in Scotland but knowing what to look out for could save many of those deaths.

Someone who definitely knows is NHS nurse Fiona Clark who spotted what she suspected was a stroke while watching Friday night’s News at Ten. Newsreader Rageh Omaar was struggling to read the autocue and appeared to be unwell so Fiona jumped straight onto the phone to ITV to urge them to take him off air.

Omaar was recovering at home yesterday and, while the cause of his episode has not be revealed, it’s a timely reminder of how to recognise the signs of a stroke. The NHS uses FAST symptoms – an acronym for Face, Arms, Speech, Time used to quickly identify if someone is having a stroke. It worth everyone learning. You might just save a life one day.

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