So if Humza Youseless resigns... what next?

[Misthios]

I have to admit I've not been paying attention really as Youseless, Salmond and that wee fanny Harvie give me the RAGE so I just end up swearing at the telly when they are on.

So if Youseless resigns - what next? The SNP elect someone else? Or we get an election? If he resigns, what happens about the votes of no confidence?

This is so true.

That was because she hadn't read a report before rocking up for an interview. I'll add lazy to my thick and unpleasant opinion of her.

It will be Swinney, I don’t think Forbes will go for it.

Yes, thank you for the explanations.

Yes, and also power, authority and reach.

Backward for what?

They're both awful.

Oh come off it. They're both separatists. They're both awful and barking mad as far as I'm concerned but Forbes has made it clear she has no intention of reversing any of that. Not that she even could.

Anyone but Gilruth.

This is morbidly fascinating from an Irish perspective. The Irish Home Rule Party seemed invincible for decades. Even held the balance of power in Vast Monster for a while. But it split over a sex scandal and never quite recovered.

History doesn't repeat exactly of course. Could SNP be out flanked by Alba I wonder. Anyway they are due a period in opposition. Presumably Labour will get a turn at the wheel. Again. I suppose the Tories are still anathema. As indeed they should be ....

Yes and they're all vile.

Gilruth is spectacularly dim, even by SNP standards of dimness. Swinney and Forbes are less dim. The other one, Gray,.is too insignificant to have made any impression.

The idea that Forbes is somehow going to roll back social policy to ban abortion and reverse gay marriage. Of course she isn't. Whatever her personal views are, she's been quite clear it's her personal views.

I don't care which one of them gets to lead the SNP, beyond wondering which one will make more of a mess. As a Unionist I'd prefer the continuity even more useless than Yousless candidate.

Swinney has past form for demonstrating his uselessness. She hasn't yet had the chance.

I think Forbes may be more open to getting to the bottom of Operation Branchform and less obstructive. She’s probably my top choice. Can’t stand Jenny Gilruth - she comes across as nasty and patronising. I would have hated to have had her as a teacher.

Forbes can’t reverse these things, but her beliefs are not compatible with running Scotland. Other issues will arise.

This does show the dearth of any talent or ability amongst them

I would want it to be Forbes for the simple reason that Greens wouldn't work with her so we wouldn't have more of their madness. The other ones they likely would work with (ie hold to ransom and exercise far more power than their votes are worth). So we'd be right back where we started from.

I think it will be Swinney … for now. My money for the leadership contest after this one, whenever that might be, is Kate Forbes and Stephen Flynn, plus some ‘unknowns’. And hopefully not including Mhairi Black.

Labour guy talking about why devolution happened and how it was meant to be different and better

A fail there

Jenny Gilruth is married to Kezia Dugdale, who has seen sense and is now out of politics.

Totally agree with Wings (now there's a turn up for the books) and agree that anyone who actually WANTS to lead right now is crazy. I can see Swinney's logic, he's 60, this is probably his last bash at it, he's probably looking towards retirement and will just carry on with the same old shite of Sturgeon and Useless until the next election.

Just remember though, Swinney was the one who gave us "blended learning, kids in school 1 day a week, backpedal, u-turn, panic panic, we never said blended learning, we always intended children in school 100% of the time and never said otherwise".

There seems to be a lot of caginess around direct answers on progressive policies such as ‘trans rights’

Deflective waffle to be expected as per, but in there was the idea that the public have diverged and politicians follow the public

We could be getting somewhere now?

Forbes will appeal to the membership who want to realign the SNP back towards the centre left.

There are many people of faith in politics who struggle with their conscience daily. They are perfectly able to separate religious belief from the law of the land. I respect those people even though my personal beliefs are opposed to theirs.

The SNP like all political parties in the UK suffers from the problem of choosing party leaders that the politically active card carrying party members want rather than who is popular with the electorate, will actually win them votes and win them boats.Examples include Corbyn, Truss, Ed Milliband, Jo Swinson.

The problem with these politically active party members is that they work and live in an echo chamber and because they don't interact with the public they assume that everyone else thinks like they do.

Given that Yousaf was simply the closest the party members could get to a Sturgeon like leader then Swinney is the closest the party members can get to a Yousaf like leader.

Yousaf's approach was to get as much publicity as possible but deliver very little in the way of legislation or trying to make Scotland better. The only initiative and legislation he will be known for is the trans law and hate crime legislation, which is not a great legacy.

My prediction is that Swinney will get the job, He then does very little and ticks it over having seen the mistakes by Yousaf on trans and hate crime. If he does really well he can limp on to the election in 2026 when SNP will get significantly lower seats and at which point he resigns and Forbes takes over. . Or there is an election sooner in which case the SNP get significantly lower seats and again he resigns and Forbes takes over.

Forbes would be mad to take party leader now, far better to let Swinney make a mess of it first in order to quieten down the politically active vocal party members.

Agree with all of this. Forbes would be wise to bide her time.