SNP the Sanctimonious Nationalist's Party?

Managed to pay enough attention to Sunday's Politics Show (Scotland!) to hear SNP Government housing minister Alex Neil chuntering on about the ills of PFI/PPP and how his party intends helping first-time buyers get on the property ladder.

Few would presumably dispute that the fundamental problem with PFI/PPP is the excessive profits accruing to the private sector as a result of these ill-thought-out schemes but, on the other hand, the SNP's fantasy of raising shedloads of cheap finance for pubic infrastructure projects via the Scottish Futures Trust seemed equally ill-conceived. Indeed, that such funds which have been/will be forthcoming seem to depend on a rehashed/rebranded PPP model, then a degree of realism has clearly trumped the idealism.

But although I used to find Alex Neil's articulate and avuncular mien quite attractive, since news of his profiteering to the sum of £105,000 on his taxpayer-assisted second home purchase hit the headlines this has fundamentally coloured my view of the MSP, underlined by his defensive "Do you want me to stay in a caravan?" remark, which seemed to miss the point a bit.

Thus a fun figure became a figure of fun (and even that's when I feel more like laughing at politics rather than crying) and in view of his taxpayer-funded Personal Property Profiteering it's difficult to take his views on the likes of PPP seriously.

As for Mr Neil's concern about first-time buyers, of course the corollary of the difficulty of getting on the property ladder is the mega-profits accruing to many of those already on it. It's an ill wind, and all that. And any assistance to first-time buyers would very probably just inflate property prices further, which could indeed help MSPs who have still to sell their properties purchased under Holyrood's second homes sca..scheme. And never mind the housing minister's responsibility for the homeless.

Of course, in the grand scheme of UK politics this isn't anything particularly worth getting worked up about, but is there something especially self-righteous about Scottish nationalism that makes the likes of the Alex Neil scenario seem slightly more nauseating than if a Scottish Labourite did likewise? Or is it just that we're so inured to this kind of thing from the Labour Party that the Nationalists are unfairly demonised for lesser misdeeds?

But Labour's historical grip on Scotland is probably a good demonstration of the dictum 'power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely', therefore with the Nationalists' only taste of power thus far being a lame-duck-from-the-off one-term administration then it's impossible to compare the two in that regard.

But Mr Neil's profiteering ably demonstrates the low-level self-serving ethos which characterises many members of the political class, thus the SNP can ill-afford to appear too holier-than-thou.

(Mr Neil disputes the £105,000 figure specified in the initial reports on the subject, because he'll have outgoings like capital gains tax on the profit realised. Indeed, it's terrible that politicians have to pay taxes on their income and capital gains like the rest of us. Exempt the poor dears, I say!)