As I type, I feel like what I am about to write has become a cliche, overused election after election by commentator after commentator. However, whilst there is an element of truth in this analysis, here I am going to type it anyway: “this is a terrible election campaign”.

Scotland is a country beset by quite a number of rather serious difficulties. This is not a partisan thesis, really, inasmuch as it is shared privately by people at the top of the governing SNP as it is by those at the top of their unionist opposition parties.

Much like the rest of the UK, Scotland has a rising and unsustainable bill for the healthcare of an ageing population and for the welfare of a working-age population. The pie chart is horrifying - massive slices for health and welfare and scraps for everything else. Nobody serious thinks it can continue.

The long-term welfare and healthcare bill can be brought down by a better education, but that’s a problem too. Curriculum for Excellence - the mother of all misnomers - is today, right now, failing a generation of children. It would be the country’s biggest problem were it not for all the others.

Another referendum is the last thing John Swinney needs

No more excuses on roads and infrastructure

Scotland wants political change, but they might think they can get it by staying the same 

Like a tax regime which inhibits enterprise. Like infrastructure which inhibits growth. Like housing and energy prices, along with wage stagnation, which limit the disposable income the economy needs to tick over.

Some of these problems can be blamed on the SNP, as its opponents claim, although........

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