Nicola Sturgeon has appeared on Louise Casey’s Radio 4 “Fixing Britain” series to congratulate herself for being “emotionally invested” in improving children’s care after completely failing to do so in government. In February 2020 the SNP launched “The Promise” which set out  policy recommendations. The SNP then proceeded, as usual, to make zero progress…

The SNP’s “ten-year transformational change programme” to fix children’s care has been roundly disparaged as a failure as promised funds fail to materialise. Only half of Scotland’s councils have so far bothered to set out indicators tracking the progress of the policy and one out of 32 is on track. Last summer the policy’s oversight board admitted it was a failure:

“Sadly, due to the worsening circumstances for so many and the current pace of change, the Promise Oversight Board does not believe that delivering the original aims… is realistic within that timeframe“.

Sturgeon’s come on the radio to say she was called the “chief corporate parent” and “personally involved” in helping the kids. Then she blames the media for making politics about the “easy choice“. Guido wonders who led the Scottish government for two and a half of the last three years…

SNP MP Mhairi Black is making a few swings at her SNP colleagues as she heads out of the playground. She told Matt Chorley today that being in Westminster had left her SNP colleagues “not normal anymore” and that they “absolutely love being in London“. A cardinal sin among ScotNats…

Black is standing down at the next election because she’s “tired“, but has found the time to accuse SNP MPs of appearing “slightly more comfortable than I think you should be“. She added that Nicola Sturgeon’s cult of personality “always made me quite uncomfortable” and that, when it came to the SNP, she always had “issues with how it’s run or how decisions have been arrived at“. Guido doesn’t remember Black making any of her misgivings public at the time…

Shona Robison is delivering the SNP’s budget this afternoon and has kicked off with the introduction of a new “advanced” 45p tax band for earnings between £75,000 and £125,140. Meanwhile the tax rate for those earning above that will be hiked from 47p to 48p. It’s already the case that in Scotland everyone earning more than £27,850 pays more in income tax than in England, and this hike will only make the disparity worse. When Survation polled Scots, over a third of them said they would consider relocating if income tax was raised any higher. Does Humza want Scotland without the Scots?

Research from the Fraser of Allender Institute has already shown that the hike will raise £20 million less than the SNP are claiming – only £60 million in the face of a £1.5 billion budget shortfall. Scottish Tory shadow finance secretary Liz Smith says Humza’s “naïve in the extreme” to try to “tax his way out of an ever-growing financial black hole“. We are witnessing an economic death spiral…

The Court of Session in Edinburgh has just ruled that the UK Government acted lawfully when it blocked the Gender Reform Act in Scotland. The SNP brought a case against the government claiming that invoking Section 35 of the Scotland Act would be unlawful. Now the UK can go ahead and veto the legislation. A victory for Sunak…

Humza Yousaf is complaining that the ruling proves “devolution is fundamentally flawed“. Demonstrating his ignorance of constitutional law…

The SNP are scrambling to maintain a connection with their dwindling supporters thanks to copious amounts of Scottish scandals, resorting to the creation of a WhatsApp channel for “up-to-date news.” A far cry from their unfulfilled promise of a “rebuttal unit” to respond to misleading claims about the independence campaign. Desperate times…

The party sent a round robin email beckoning supporters to join the new group, saying:

“As we move forward quickly towards the next Westminster election in 2024, we’re going to be providing you with new campaign tools to support your efforts as you engage with voters in communities across Scotland.”

To be fair, they only received less than half a million pounds in donations this quarter, looks like they’re spreading thin the budget… 

That’s one way to avoid the headache that comes with deleting WhatsApp messages – have them readily available to the public. Though unless they’re planning on revealing the names of the two politicians in the lockdown love affair scandal, Guido doubts many will be jumping at the chance to join the chat…

The SNP has been hit by another scandal, as intimate texts between two SNP MPs swept across Holyrood yesterday. The texts reveal the extramarital affair between the two politicians, who the Scottish Daily Mail knows the names of though won’t reveal for legal reasons. The steamy fling took place during lockdown, at the same time as the party insisted Scots stayed at home. The heartbroken husband of one of the politicians said “the affair wrecked my marriage.” Déjà vu?

UPDATE: The SNP have officially denied the reports.