The 'big beasts' of politics are nowhere to be found in this election

I don’t subscribe to the view that Alex Salmond’s Alba have done the SNP a ­favour by draining the latter of all ­manner of ­“weirdos” or “extremists”. In fact, it would be dangerously deluded of the SNP to ­believe that they don’t also contain all ­manner of former adherents who got well and truly scunnered by the failure to move the indy dial.

In truth, there is no easy route to ­finding a pathway which would be respected by the rest of the world including London, but as a founder member of the “better to beg ­forgiveness than ask permission” club, I’d certainly have liked the Scottish ­Government to have made much more of seminal moments like the Brexit vote.

There is too the perennial question mark over how much greater the indy support might have been on the back of a serious, properly run campaign. We’ve had lots of bold rhetoric, many marches; though rather less in the way of active initiatives.

Even so, I can’t see that setting up a new party is likely to be as successful as its ­adherents hope. New parties have a time-honoured habit of imploding, and already Alba has experienced all-too-familiar ­internal tensions.

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Salmond, who is no stranger to ­formulating effective strategies, cannot bring himself to acknowledge the Marmite politician he has become for much of the electorate. And other smaller pro-indy ­parties have largely risen without trace.

Apparently, Alex’s belief is that ­targeting the list vote in 2026 will be the key to ­unlocking majority support for ­independence, yet I doubt that the crucial bank of undecideds will plight their troth to a minority party polling around 5% or 6%. Enough perhaps to get a seat or two – hardly the start of a revolution.

Already the polls suggest that almost half the population of Scotland favours this country becoming a natural independent entity; getting that up to a settled majority will only happen when the massed ranks of Yes supporters are given the tools and the motivation to finish the job. Thus far, the only party that seems truly obsessive about independence are the Scottish Tories who seem convinced that the Scottish Government is similarly obsessed. If only.

There are two opposing viewpoints in play here – either the Scottish Government is out of touch with voters’ problems, or many of these problems can only be ­ameliorated by indy. Both cannot be true.

The leader of the Alba Party Alex Salmond

Which brings us to Labour. They have also loudly announced that they will not only have no truck with indy, but have also set their face against asking Scots what they favour. I’m not sure how that squares in any shape or form with the democracy they say they espouse.

The party I once supported is now unrecognisable. And not just ­because of the lack of common ­democratic ­imperatives. They are supportive of Trident and nuclear power both of which are anathema to a majority of its members, as witness conference decisions passim.

They have refused to commit to ­scrapping the two-child limit on benefits which the ­former party would have ­instantly recognised as morally ­repugnant. They have steadfastly watered down their green ­commitments, ditto the supposedly ­flagship policy on workers’ rights.

That’s before the shocking statements on Gaza and the shameless ­hijacking of an SNP motion day to cover its ­embarrassment belatedly at losing so many Muslim votes on the back of some appalling broadcasts.

Does anyone still doubt that their Scottish arm is little more than a branch office? It will take more than deleting the Union flag corner from its Change placard to convince this voter.

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Interviewed recently, Anas Sarwar said that he believed in the value of work – “the clue is in our name”. A complete ­misreading of the origins of his own ­party, founded to protect workers not to insist that people unable to work should be penalised.

Anyone who believes that you need to get rid of the Tories by voting Tory-lite is seriously deluded.

For Sarwar’s was a very Tory line, among too many Conservative ­soundalikes. In the last leaders’ debate, Sunak ­suggested his plans could be funded by cuts in the welfare bill. What planet does this man inhabit?

Anyone knows that to get even ­modest benefit levels these days consists of ­leaping through serial hoops and risking sanctions if your job centre bus is late. Then again, why would the man now richer than the King understand that?

In two years’ time, the Greens might have counted on my second vote, but that was when they were thirled to ­environmental concerns rather than ­insisting that rights of the 0.4% of Scots who identified as trans in the 2022 census trumped the rights of the 52% of Scots who are female.

Protecting minority rights is crucial, but not via a route which tramples all over pre-existing rights of majorities. I recommend the Scottish Greens put a copy of Women Won’t Wheesht bedside. It demonstrates why women right across the political spectrum have been labelled transphobic for committing the sin of ­believing in basic biology.

People should be able to choose any gender or none according to personal ­inclination. They are not entitled to ­confuse it with sex.

How this became nothing less than a cult which allowed some party leaders to parrot nonsense remains one of the great mysteries of our times.

It’s clearer to me now why Scottish Greens became divorced from their ­English counterparts whose election ­priorities, in addition to the environment, include a very healthy desire to ­relieve some of the very rich of their excess wealth in the cause of the common good.

It’s the kind of policy with which the Labour Party would once have been very comfortable. You don’t have to ­believe that Jeremy Corbyn is the sun god to ­understand that wealth and ­opportunity re-distribution are popular causes, not least among people who work all the available hours for precious little reward.

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There are folks attending food banks up and down the land who represent hard-working families who can’t afford to nourish their own kids while keeping them warm and properly shod. And there are cabinet ministers at Westminster lecturing them about thrift whilst stashing their cash offshore.

So this is a General Election to be circumnavigated without undue enthusiasm. I hope the Scottish Tories are toast, although there are pockets of people in the North East and the Borders who still manage to convince themselves that the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party is worth their vote.

I hope enough former Labour voters can see that the party they thought they knew has been utterly remodelled. And not in a good way. I hope they understand that voting Labour in Scotland will not affect the overall UK result – they don’t need us, and we assuredly don’t need them.

The sad truth is that in a land which once boasted big political beasts there are now gey few on whom we could ­bestow that moniker. I don’t doubt that John Swinney is a decent enough bloke, but the fact that his party had to go back to the future to anoint a leader does not inspire unbridled enthusiasm.

It’s unpopular to observe, but right now the best bets for tomorrow’s ­leadership ply their trade at Westminster. They would be of much more use back home.