I caught the Highland news on radio the other morning. The lead story was about another fatal crash on the A9 at a point which all of us who know that road approach with apprehension. Under SNP-Green hegemony, dualling was promised by 2025 and then postponed by a decade.

The second item announced a downgrading by half of forecasts around jobs related to renewable energy. It was a familiar tale: the bravura about the "Saudi Arabia of renewables" unmatched by any strategy for the Scottish economy on which a "just transition" will depend. So the vast majority of the work goes overseas.

Since this was the day of John Swinney’s audacious coronation, these were timely reminders of how Scotland has been run for years. Boasts, lies and empty promises have been the currency of government. From ferries via attainment gaps to NHS waiting lists, votes were garnered through headlines with scant regard for days of reckoning.

A permanent presence through all of this was one John Ramsay Swinney, a Member of the Scottish Parliament since its inception 25 years ago and for 16 years a loyal partisan on behalf of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon; a dismally poor Education Secretary and, as a crowning glory, his party’s negotiator in creating a coalition with the Scottish Greens.

READ MORE: Swinney as FM? What a democratic outrage that would be

READ MORE: The Greens con: this is a cult, not a serious political party

READ MORE: This woodburning stove ban is an assault on the rural poor

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