SNP needs to focus on Scotland's problems, not advancing their careers

However, his now-abandoned attempt to work as both an MP and an MSP by ousting his party colleague Audrey Nicoll from the Aberdeen South and North Kincardine seat caused a fresh party split.

After John Swinney cautioned that doing the two jobs, as he did for two years in the early years of the Scottish Parliament, is “practically very, very demanding”, Flynn straightforwardly admitted defeat, saying “hands up, I’ve got this one wrong”. Some, however, may struggle to believe his claim he’d been trying to “save the public purse from unnecessary strain” by doing both jobs.

All in all, this was an unnecessary row that suggested the SNP was more focussed on their own careers than the national interest. That’s not a good look when – seven years after it was ‘launched’ with painted-on windows – the MV Glen Sannox, built by a state-owned shipyard for a state-owned ferry company, is only now just about ready to start sailing. And when, amid a social care crisis, SNP ministers are trying to play a blame game with councils over the government’s expensive and seemingly doomed efforts to create a National Care Service.

It may seem boring and mundane to those with loftier ambitions, but ensuring lifeline services like ferries and social care are maintained is a fundamental part of the government’s job.

Flynn’s presumptuous move appears to have backfired and may damage support within the party for what seems like an inevitable bid to become its leader at some point in the future.

Meanwhile, the wider electorate is left looking on at an open display of what are normally internal party squabbles amid the growing ruins of Scotland’s public services. The SNP needs to focus on the job in hand – sorting out this country’s many problems – or they’ll pay a heavy price in 2026.