On politics, spin and snow

Despite the chaos caused by last week's snow, the political fallout is still perplexing. In fact it's easy to imagine a similar scenario without much of a political dimension at all, never mind the high-profile resignation of a Scottish Government minister, the first since the SNP took the Holyrood helm in 2007.

Unsurprisingly, the Nationalists are claiming that opposition politicians were, ahem, politically motivated, while the likes of Joan McAlpine takes a more nuanced look at Labour/Unionist connections at BBC Scotland and consequent bias, accusations denied in the strongest terms by the broadcaster in a letter in today's Scotsman.

While there may be some mileage in the BBC bias claim, something that SNP supporters seem to forget is that the media tends to be more critical of incumbent governments rather than opposition parties - indeed, that's why this blog tends to target the SNP in particular - but of course the Nationalists are not used to occupying such high office.

On the other hand, it was quite possibly the tabloid lampooning of Stewart Stevenson that got beneath the former transport secretary's skin, rather than what Jackie Bird et al were saying. And the fact that the issue took on such political significance could reflect the general lack of real news in the Scottish media/political village. I mean, how often does Newsnicht have to discuss the state of Scottish banking and the financial services sector, or the fortunes of the Scottish economy more generally, with the Scotsman's Bill Jamieson, the Herald's Alf Young and that economist chap who looks like he could do with a haircut presumably living within walking distance of the TV studio just in case they're called upon to do their bit, but might get stuck in the snow if travelling by car. (Or, in a slight variation last night, Mr Wendy Alexander aka Professor Brian Ashcroft, and the Scotsman's George Kerevan.)

Anyway, the one matter which seemed to particularly pique the public, journalists and political opponents was when Mr Stevenson claimed on TV that the official response to the blizzards had been "first class".

Bullocks, obviously, but his claim seemed merely symptomatic of bog standard political spin, and the type of black-is-white, fire-is-water bull that politicians spout as a matter of course, and which all but the most partisan or gullible take with a pinch of salt, but which doesn't usually constitute a sacking or resignation offence.

Indeed, it was interesting to listen to Nicola Sturgeon on the Politics Show immediately after Mr Stevenson's departure. He was portrayed as such a paragon of political virtue in his act of departure, and should be so "extremely proud of" his role in piloting "world-leading climate change legislation", that her eulogy begged the question, why resign in the first place? On the other hand, Alex Salmond asking him to stay in his post was entirely "reasonable". Meanwhile, the promoted Keith Brown and Angela Constance represented the "excellent appointment" of an "extremely good, effective and capable minister" with "enormous skills and ability" and a "very capable parliamentary performer" who will do an "excellent job", respectively. Thus "all in all, a good round of appointments". And splitting the transport and climate change aspects of Mr Stevenson's portfolio took place because events represented "an opportunity to look at how responsibilities best fit together" particularly when Roseanna Cunningham is an "extremely good environment minister", so why wait until last weekend to promote these people and rejig the ministerial responsibilities? Oh aye, and it was a' the fault o' the weather and the opposition's political game playing onyway, so why the resignation in the first place?

Thus an object lesson in making a virtue of necessity and attempting to spin the whole thing to best advantage, and to that extent just workaday political bull which the vast majority of people either despair at or have a wee chuckle about, depending on their mood at the time. Or much like the kind of thing that ultimately led to Stewart Stevenson's resignation, but the most significant legacy of Ms Sturgeon's ramblings is as part of the subject matter of this blogpost, thus already effectively forgotten about.

Meanwhile, a correspondent to yesterday's Dundee Evening Telegraph suggests that, since the SNP Government took the hit for the adverse weather then it should take the credit for "introducing a thaw", which seems eminently fair in view of last week's events, but since the Scotsman's lead story is this morning warning of another three feet of snow then perhaps the Nationalists should instead be hoping that political fortunes don't normally more directly reflect the state of the weather!