In the Scotsman today:

We should be thankful for there being politicians like John Swinney. By his own actions the evidence that devolution is failing the Scottish people continues to mount, building a funeral pyre for the democratic experiment. John Swinney would not want it any other way, he does not and never has supported devolution as a democratic ideal that should be made to work. For Swinney, demonstrating devolution can never be enough is his political mission, for the collapsing public services and economic stagnation under his watch can be used to justify it should be replaced by secession.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/brian-monteith-why-should-john-swinney-care-if-higher-taxes-ruin-scotlands-economy-3958279

It’s almost funny. Swinney not caring about us based on the opinion of this former researcher for the Thatcherite Centre for Policy Studies, Con MSP, Brexit MEP, Freemason, ‘acquaintance’ of convicted felon Jack Abramoff and resident in a ‘commune’ in the south of France.

Our piece on him in April 2020, below:

With John McLennan and Brian Wilson, Monteith represents all that is most wearisome in the Scotsman as it tries to fight-off competition from disreputable, untrained, unprofessional social media tykes such as those at TuSC. We’re averaging 10 000 views this month. Anyone have the Scotsman figures?

Thankfully protected by their paywall, we can only see these puzzling opening lines:

‘You know when a belief system has become an ideology when it is seen by those who hold it as justifying any and every decision.’

Is that not back-to-front? Aren’t belief systems more comprehensive and inflexible than than ideologies? Are ISIS following beliefs or an ideology?

This is no time or place for semantics but I guess he’s suggesting that SNP supporters are a bit more consistent and joined-up in their thinking than opportunistic, self-centred, pragmatists, like the kind of folk who migrated from the Conservatives to the Brexit Party in pursuit of a career that even the former would not offer them. That’s not what he meant?