Achi news desk-
Humza Yousaf piled the pressure on his successor during his resignation speech.
“Independence feels frustratingly close,” he told the hacks gathered at Bute House.
But, he added, “the last few miles of the marathon are always the hardest”.
The SNP, he said, “ran this race as a team and I will now prepare to pass the baton to a successor who I am absolutely certain will lead us over the finish line”.
No pressure, John.
As it turns out, Holyrood has someone who knows a thing or two about relay races.
Brian Whittle was an Olympic relay runner.
His run as the third leg of Great Britain’s men’s 4×400 meter team at the 1986 European Championships is legendary.
His teammate Kris Akabusi accidentally tore his shoe as he passed the baton, forcing Whittle to run without it.
So what does the man, dubbed “one of the fastest socks in history” by David Coleman, think of the outgoing FM running metaphor?
“If we’re looking at winning a relay then you need someone on the last leg who is quicker and tactically smarter than the opposition, assuming the previous runners have given the leg runner a fighting chance last,” he said.
Read more:
Unspun | Analysis: Will the SNP choose yesterday’s man to fight tomorrow’s battles?
“I don’t see any last leg runners on the SG benches.
“You also have to have a sense of direction to stay in the lane. I would say that the Scottish Government has been disqualified for leaving the track and leading Scotland in the wrong direction.”
Whittle is, of course, a Tory MSP, so his views on the constitution are perhaps not too surprising.
But what do others think?
Are we in the last few miles of a marathon, I ask Ailsa Henderson, Professor of Political Science at Edinburgh University.
It depends, he says, on where we start.
“If you think well the marathon started in the October 1974 election, then you might be thinking, okay, yes, we might be in the final leg.”
Professor Henderson, the FM, adds that he is “about 20 years older than he is when he says things like that”.
“You can imagine that people who have been representing the party for much longer would look at the current polling situation and say yes, compared to where we were, then absolutely, we are within touching distance of 50%. I guess if you’ve just been paying attention since 2014, you’d say, well, it’s not that different to where we were the day after the referendum.”
There is also, he adds, the “wider context in which we operate”.
“That wider context says, whatever the public polling tells us, we are not having a referendum any time soon, nor does it look like the route you would call for one is a clear one.
“So from that perspective, it’s not as if we’re weeks or months away from a democratic contest where we could radically change the future of Scotland.”
There are 26.2 miles in a marathon, I ask polling expert Mark Diffley what mile Scotland thinks.
It depends, he said, on where we end up,
Support for leaving the UK averages around 48%.
“It remains relatively high historically and quite robust. So in that sense it’s not off the table. From a public perspective, it feels like it’s still an unresolved issue.”
However, when you ask people what their priorities are independence is low, with only around one in 10 wanting to see the government deal with it at the moment.
Read more:
Unspun | Will Kate Forbes run? Why in the world would she want to?
“So behind these staples which are economic performance, the state of public services, especially in the NHS, housing, climate change, etc.
“Well, well below measures for those matters.”
“It is absolutely impossible to know where the finish line is,” he adds. “The boundary line agreed here would probably be another referendum in the absence of any kind of declaration of independence or whatever.
“We have no idea when that could ever happen again. And so not knowing where the finish line is means we can’t say with certainty what part of that journey we’re really on.
“I think we’re probably still quite a long way from the finish line, to be perfectly honest.”
When John Swinney was asked during the launch of his campaign whether he could lead Scotland to independence, he answered confidently, receiving applause and cheers from the cabinet secretaries and supporters gathered in the room.
In fairness, he could hardly have said, no.
Swinney is an avid runner himself, and has, in fact, run a marathon.
So – and just to torture this running metaphor even further – he’ll know exactly what it’s like to hit the wall.
The FM was wrong, in my very limited experience, the last few miles are not the hardest part of the marathon. There’s a real boost when you know you’re close to the end.
The hardest part is just after mile 20.
Will Swinney be able to find the finish line or will he DNF?
