This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter.

Stephen Flynn should brush up his Shakespeare, specifically Macbeth. Though he’d be well-advised attending to his reading around the true history of the ill-fated and loathed Scottish king as well.

For Flynn brings no character from literature or the past to mind more than Macbeth. Macbeth, after all, was a man of rank and grasping ambition so unrelievedly self-centred and filled with his own false sense of greatness that he would stab his dearest friends to death, assassinate the leader who lifted him from nowhere, and eventually bring himself low, fashioning his own demise, leaving a reputation stained in the pages of history.

First, Flynn manufactured the end of his rival Ian Blackford to assume power as the SNP’s Westminster leader. Blackford denied he was pushed, but only the gullible took that as anything other than a wisp of cloth to maintain party unity. Flynn has gained a reputation since for overestimating his talents. Though bluster and a big mouth can take folk far in politics.

Now, Flynn has fomented a tawdry exercise to remove a sitting SNP MSP – a ‘friend’ one would imagine – so he can run for Holyrood. Once Flynn is in Holyrood, John Swinney – or whoever is in charge – better watch for the knife in the dark.

Flynn intends to keep both jobs and sit as an MP and MSP. The practice of........

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