How SNP MPs have just revealed they think politics is a game
It has been some time since I was young enough to play ‘musical chairs’. Even so, I felt a pang of nostalgia this week seeing members of the SNP dance around. Between Stephen Flynn, Dave Doogan and Stephen Gethins, we have not one but three recently elected MPs playing the game – and looking for a second seat in Holyrood.
The dance has an even more frenetic feeling when you consider that the SNP are widely expected to lose seats in 2026. The depleted ranks of the SNP at Westminster are joining the game just as more chairs are being pulled out of reach. Is this really the best that their constituents can hope for? It all feels a little bit like rats jumping off a sinking ship – only to land on another.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThat Mr Flynn would run for Holyrood was practically a given. No doubt, he is tired of having to watch the back of Ed Davey’s head as he takes the third party slot for the Liberal Democrats at Prime Minister’s Questions, with all the opportunities to raise serious issues that the SNP previously squandered.
Not a good look
Mr Flynn has already declared that if elected he will only take one salary. No doubt, he would like this to be seen as an act of charity on his part. I suspect the truth is that taking half pay for two seats will simply reflect the quality of service his constituents can expect.
I also suspect that if Mr Flynn does secure his second job in Holyrood, it will not be long before he starts angling for a third. The fine people of Aberdeen will have to decide how much disinterest they can tolerate from their representation.
Mr Gethins is the one candidate I confess I was genuinely surprised to see leaping from the ship. In my experience, he was one of the more thoughtful members of the SNP in Westminster. To win a seat in Parliament in July and be looking for another in November is never a good look.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad

Nor, frankly, is the fact that we now have three SNP MPs apparently planning to double-hat just three years after their colleague Joanna Cherry was blocked from doing the same thing. Joanna and I disagree on quite a few fundamental issues but her credentials as a public servant and advocate were unimpeachable. That she was barred while Messrs Flynn, Doogan and Gethins get a free pass has more than a whiff of double standards. The rules of the game, it seems, only apply to some of the players.
Policies an afterthought
Therein lies the trouble for the nationalists from this round of musical chairs. It reinforces the impression – one that has been growing in the minds of Scots for some time – that for many in the SNP, politics really is just a game.
They have been in power for so long that jobs and titles and seats in Parliament are just playthings to be tussled over. Policy and problem-solving are an afterthought. That may be good for gossip but it also makes for poor public service. Come 2026, voters might well think it is time to end the game and bring in some grown-ups.
Alistair Carmichael is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.