Stand alongside me this Yuletide period and let us ponder. Which of our Scottish political leaders is gleefully greeting Santa? And which is assuming a festive face while secretly muttering “bah, humbug?”

Earlier in the year, you would have looked to John Swinney for the curmudgeonly countenance. As he surveyed his party’s deeply depleted ranks at Westminster and wondered how to govern in Scotland after his predecessor dumped the Greens.

You would have expected the customarily cheery Anas Sarwar to be even more effervescent, buoyed by a UK General Election triumph and anticipating, as in the Scottish Play, that he might be First Minister hereafter. How things change.

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Right now, it is John Swinney who is recalibrating Scottish governance, with a fierce focus upon the “people’s priorities”. Child poverty, the economy, the health service, education, climate change. And it is Labour’s Anas Sarwar who is left in limbo. Hoping for good news from Downing Street to counter the difficulties with which he has been lumbered since that remarkable election victory in July.

As you ponder, consider this quote from a political leader. “We made a pledge, we didn’t stick to it – and for that I am sorry. When you’ve made a mistake, you should apologise. But more importantly – most important of all – you’ve got to learn from your mistakes. And that’s what we will do”.

Recognise it? No, it’s not Sir Keir Starmer. Nor yet Rachel Reeves. It is not about the Waspi women, who reckon they have been let down over their pensions by the new Labour government after........

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