Seven broken SNP promises that should serve as warning to all

As usual, it was the moment that mattered – not the consequences. Similarly, if past form is reviewed, there are two certainties for whatever Mr Swinney unveils. Either it won’t happen or it shouldn’t. Or more usually, a combination of both. And he’s been around through them all.

The SNP conference has become an annual stage for delusionary nonsense and false promises, designed to fool enough of the people all of the time. And let’s not underestimate the power of Tartan Trumpism. Until recently, it worked very well for them.

Regular attenders will recall 2017 as a vintage conference at which Nicola Sturgeon had them dancing in the aisles by promising a “publicly owned, not-for-profit Scottish Energy Company by 2021”. The years rolled by and in September 2021, the commitment was formally abandoned with half a million quid squandered. Mere pocket money.

Wild cheers

Another exciting promise from the 2017 oration was “dualling the A9 and making it our first electric-enabled highway”. Wild cheers from the Highland delegates! Sadly, the words “by 2035 if you’re lucky” were omitted from the text.

Another conference to evoke patriotic nostalgia was in 2021 when Ms Sturgeon announced a National Care Service. No half measures, it was to be on a par with the creation of the National Health Service – Nicola as the new Aneurin Bevan.

Needless to say, it has not come within a country mile of delivery, bogged down in last-ditch resistance by councils to even greater removal of powers and centralisation at astronomical cost. But never mind, the conference purpose was served – it was announced, so it existed.

By 2022, the roof of Aberdeen’s conference centre was at risk when Ms Sturgeon promised an independence referendum “in October 2023”. That went well. We will never know about the “£20 billion investment fund” which was to follow.

Millions down the drain

That conference speech also allowed Ms Sturgeon to muse about the brilliance of her agreement with the Greens: “Forcing each other out of our comfort zones so we can raise the bar of achievement is the whole point.” Alas, the bar collapsed under weight of the deposit return scheme (DRS), highly protected marine areas and myriad other wheezes which would have been better confined to their comfort zones.

Mention of the DRS reminds us, of course, of the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB), announced at the 2018 conference, which eventually stuttered into life three years later and duly demonstrated its political independence by pouring £9 million down the DRS drain.

It was a far cry from Ms Sturgeon’s assurance that creating the SNIB “will mean £7 billion of extra investment in schools, hospitals, housing, transport and low-carbon solutions”. For good measure, there was to be “a commission which will explore the feasibility of a government-owned National Infrastructure Company”. How’s that coming along?

In the real world. the SNIB is still losing money and it remains unclear what it does that the long-existing agencies, Scottish Enterprise and HIE, could not have delivered better if they had not been systematically stripped of powers and funding over 17 years. But where’s the political profit in announcing that?

Empty rhetoric and blame-shifting

The conference opened in private conclave to analyse the failings of a general election campaign in which the SNP lost 39 of their 48 seats. Let me help. Perhaps they could find a clue by referring to these past conference speeches.

At least for the decade since 2014, they thrived on false promises, empty rhetoric and blame-shifting. Much of what was announced to win headlines never happened and none of the promised outcomes – closing poverty gaps, equalising educational attainment, cutting NHS waiting-lists, etc – ever emerged. On the contrary, every public service is in visible decline.

Eventually, people who had lent them votes in good faith started to notice and by the time they had gone through three leaders in 18 months, analogies with the Tories were irresistible. Scotland, the electorate agreed, did not have one lousy government but two. Throw in Operation Branchform and there’s not much else to discuss. Always happy to oblige.

Government by headline

The SNP takes a sell-them-cheap, pile-them-high approach to membership, so the numbers flatter to deceive. At a tenner or fiver a year, it’s not much of a commitment and I guess half of what’s left have just forgotten to cancel their 2014 direct debits. Now even the creatives have turned against them.

What they never seem to have is expertise in anything. That is the problem with people being drawn into politics by an abstract objective around the constitution rather than a passion for reform in any particular field – education, the NHS, housing or anything else. The result is government by headline (the spin doctors) and mediocrity (the ministers, all 28 of them) who churn out legislation without purpose.

In these respects, the SNP is beyond redemption and whole flocks of chickens are coming home to roost. The constitution is off almost everyone’s agenda and a day of reckoning has come on fiscal irresponsibility. So what is their purpose but to stay in office for its own sake, with the same dismal outcomes?

There are also inherent warnings for those who seek to replace them to develop expertise to drive policy, focus on areas where it is essential to make a difference – and don’t make stupid promises for the sake of cheap applause.