Incompetent Nats come with a health warning

The NCS debacle was an avoidable failure.Many groups, from unions to opposition parties, back the principle of a national service, but SNP ministers could not explain the policy.The government could also not allay suspicions it would grab power from councils.When the Greens finally walked off the pitch last year, ministers knew it was over.

- PAUL HUTCHEON

THE first page of the SNP's manifesto at the Holyrood election included a promise from Nicola Sturgeon.

Covid had exposed the frailties of social care and she vowed to create a "new National Care Service".

She also claimed the NCS would be established within a year and to have it "fully functioning" by 2026.

She is now an ex-first minister and her care revolution for has been killed off by C ex-deputy John Swinney. The NCS debacle was an avoidable failure.