With a 25 per cent approval rating, the 20-year old SNP government is not popular, and voters are primed to vote for a change. But, as Andy Maciver considers, they may feel the change they want can be delivered by John Swinney rather than by one of the alternatives

Elections can be demoralising and exhilarating in equal measure. Most of the exhilaration is reserved for those who work on campaigns, and I have been in that position in the past. Most of the demoralisation, on the other hand, is reserved for those of us who observe politics from a position of relative impartiality, which is the position I find myself in these days.

The ‘short’ campaign has really only been underway for a week, and it would be grossly overoptimistic to believe that our politicians have raised the level of debate in that time. From what I can see, they are spending most of their time focussing on the travails of their opponents rather than on their own virtues.

There has been an extraordinary focus on Reform leader Malcolm Offord’s joke, of course, which I covered on these pages last week. We are told by his opponents that Mr Offord should resign for telling this joke nearly 10 years ago, before he was a politician, although it is unclear whether or not any of our other leaders have told a terribly offensive joke in their past. Actually, now that I think about it, some people wanted Anas Sarwar, Labour’s leader, to resign because he told a joke about being the victim of a stroke, and that was just last month.

Reform: So-called 'joke' is the least of Malcolm Offord's problems

Work is good for you. Could someone tell Scotland’s civil........

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