The prospect of the annual Burns Night celebrations in Scotland did little to bring squabbling political parties together this week. Indeed, such was the shrill level of disharmony over issues of complexity that the public could be forgiven for scratching their heads in bewilderment.
At the beginning of the week, the issue dominating Holyrood was the ongoing revelations about the Chief Constable of Police Scotland, Phil Gormley, and whether he could return to work while complaints against him about bullying are being investigated. In political terms, the issue concerns the role played by Justice Secretary Michael Matheson in influencing this decision, and whether he acted appropriately. It became the core theme of a fiery First Minister’s Questions on Thursday when, sensing the possibility of a scalp, Tory leader Ruth Davidson argued that the Justice Secretary’s influence was greater than suggested and, more broadly, accused the government of keeping his role ‘under wraps.’ For her part, the First Minister gave a robust defence of Mr Matheson, condemning what she called the ‘rank hypocrisy’ of the Conservatives. She will hope that this issue will blow over without any loss of personnel and the strength of her defence of the minister suggests she is prepared to stand by him.
On Thursday, the minority status of the Scottish government had practical consequences when they lost a vote in parliament which is likely to lead to a key piece of legislation being scrapped. The Offensive Behaviour and Threatening Communications Act was passed in the previous parliament when the SNP led a majority government. The legislation has been controversial since its inception, with a range of interest groups attacking the fairness and workability of the law. The result is a personal triumph for Labour MSP James Kelly who initiated the vote which is likely to lead to the Act being scrapped. But while the legislation may soon be a distant memory, what comes next is less clear; the issue has not gone away and polling from 2015 suggests that more than 80% of Scots support legislation to tackle offensive behaviour at football matches. So, the likely way forward is for government and opposition parties to come together to thrash out a new approach.
While these vital matters of public policy and law have taxed the political classes this week, undoubtedly the issue which has dominated the traditional and social media has concerned the types of flags flown over public buildings. The row erupted on Wednesday when several papers ran with headlines about the Scottish government ‘eradicating’ the union flag from some of its own buildings. Clearly upset by these stories, the First Minister took to Twitter to rebut these ‘ridiculous’ allegations, arguing that the matter was simply the civil service updating its guidance to reflect a practice which had not changed since 2010. And this was one battle this week that the First Minister can claim victory over, when the Daily Mail apologised on Friday for its original story. In an era of ongoing constitutional debate in Scotland, stories like these get an inflated sense of importance and coverage, but hopefully we have heard the last of this episode.
More footballing misery
The Scottish Football Association suffered a major setback this week when its preferred candidate to replace Gordon Strachan as national manager, Michael O’Neill, decided to stay in his role with Northern Ireland. His decision ended the SFA’s overt courting of O’Neill as their preferred candidate since Strachan resigned in October, following another failure to reach a major tournament. And it left the SFA with significant amounts of egg on their faces, with journalists, pundits and supporters all calling for its Chief Executive to stand down.
More importantly it means that the prospect of footballing glory for the national team is as remote as ever!