Swinney is at the wheel but screeched right into reverse. What SNP need is a new driver..and she's already passed the test

JOHN Swinney would have you believe he has “steadied the ship" since he became First Minister.

- PaulSinclair

I beg to differ. The best he can be said to have done is grab back the car keys of the family Ford Focus from the joyrider that was Humza Yousaf.

And since then the car, the SNP and the country has been badly parked in reverse and is slowly sliding backwards.

That backwards movement gathered pace with the surprise defeat in the Hamilton by-election.

The damage that has done to Swinney’s credibility should not be underestimated. Hamilton was Labour's third most winnable seat and so perhaps it should not be such a stunning blow to lose it after 18 years in office and a year before the next Scottish election.

But Swinney framed it as a crucial moment to stop Nigel Farage's “racist” Reform Party and portrayed himself as the one man to stop them.

He even gulled Scottish Labour's Anas Sarwar into going along with him. He framed it on his own terms. And he lost. Badly.

Now people in the SNP remember what it was like when Swinney last led the SNP 20 years ago.