John Swinney’s maiden FMQs: an invitation to do the time warp

Patrick Harvie has never been accused of suffering from a surfeit of grace. The co-leader of the Green Party can hardly be expected to welcome or embrace his relegation to the backbenches but it is evident that time has not yet soothed his hurt feelings and injured pride. Nor will it for some months yet.

John Swinney was answering questions as first minister for the first time. Why, Harvie demanded, had he appointed a witch to his cabinet? Was he just pandering to the “right wing of his party”? Did he not understand just “how worried LGBT people and others” are now that Kate Forbes — the witch in question — has returned to the cabinet? Does the Scottish government really wish to give the impression that its “direction of travel” is “taking us back to the 1950s”?

The first minister gently observed that, actually, he leads a “moderate” government — which is why there are no Greens in it — of the gentle “left-of-centre”. Moreover, his new deputy first minister had previously served as finance secretary in a government which included the Green Party. Since, though he was kind enough not to state this explicitly, Harvie and Lorna Slater were happy to draw ministerial salaries alongside Forbes, the sincerity of their current objections to her presence in government might itself be open to some interrogation.

Fine as the first minister’s response was, I felt it lacked ambition. He stresses that he wishes to cultivate a “dynamic” Scotland. This being so, taking the country back to the Fifties is no kind of progress. Not when the opportunity to draw inspiration from the 1840s — the decade of the Great Disruption and the early years of Scotland’s great Victorian ascent — remains available.

Be that as it may, Swinney projected an air of calm reasonableness throughout proceedings. And he enjoyed some sport with Anas Sarwar too. “Continuity won’t cut it,” the Labour leader said, “Scotland needs fresh leadership” but is instead saddled with “more of the same”.

Donning his cavalry boots and tunic, Swinney announced that he had “good news for Anas Sarwar”. For “the fresh leadership has just arrived” and “I’m right here to deliver it”. Opposition parties might hoot and holler about this but “they sent me here to do it”. The subtext of which was also clear: are you missing Humza Yousaf, yet? Much more of this and the opposition parties may think that a rare question to which the answer is: Yes.