Stephen Flynn's two jobs bid was misguided, but SNP can't be surprised of calls for a reset

Given how much joy the SNP had got out of Douglas Ross doing the same, it was always going to be a bit embarrassing, with the party’s leader in Westminster attempting to do what so many of his colleagues had revelled in criticising.

It was also funny given Mr Flynn’s hopes of running for Holyrood were hardly a secret, with nobody shocked by the announcement, just its timing. It was hypocritical, short-sighted and misjudged the view of his party.

But - and it’s a big but - that doesn’t make him wrong to try. Maybe it’s the Tottenham fan in me, but this daring to do, this chasing something unobtainable even though it’s difficult and likely doomed, there is courage in that.

Mr Flynn reckoned he could do a better job than some of his Holyrood counterparts, and would be a greater asset to the SNP and the independence movement if he was in a different parliament, one where he had more chances and profile to make the case. Is he wrong in that?

Where the SNP are currently, they have one of their best performers in a parliament that does not give him a weekly question, where his number of colleagues has shrunk, not due to mismanagement on his part, but because of blunders up the road.

The SNP have taken a car crash approach to governing, hitting one scandal, letting it get stuck under the bonnet, refusing to own it as a mistake, then reversing into another. Dug up gardens. iPads streaming the football. Ministerial cars being used to go to the football.

Mr Flynn perhaps believes it would help the party to have one of their staunchest and most regular defenders on the broadcast round in the Scottish Parliament, trying to make sure there’s less indefensible to defend.

Sure, it was mean and arguably entitled of him to seek a seat already held by a colleague. But is a reset for the Holyrood group so shocking?

Many of his former MPs don’t think so, disgusted by a Government they feel cost them their seats, whether with unpopular policies or simply from sparking scandal. The party is making mass redundancies, it’s struggling financially and just got humped at the polls.

It’s not selfish or treachery to wonder if, to coin a phrase, things can only get better. SNP MSPs cannot be happy with how things are going and, if they are, they’ll be joining some of their brightest and best former Westminster counterparts in re-joining the job market.

Mr Flynn went hard and then he went home. But some of the pearl clutching has been beyond pathetic. It’s also been in public.

If we’re going to have a look at what is and isn’t good for the SNP, tweeting condemnation of colleagues should be the first to go. I appreciate it as a journalist, but my word is it unprofessional.

A man went for two jobs, because he is ambitious, sure, but thinks he can help the cause. Perhaps MSPs should worry why he thinks he’s needed in the first place.