Scotland is crying out for change but we're getting a man who's been at the heart of this incompetent government for 17 years

ALMOST 24 years ago, John Swinney was elected as the SNP's leader.

This week, history is set to repeat itself as the party stalwart is crowned in a potentially uncontested election as the continuity candidate.

At a time when Scotland is crying out for change, we are getting a man who has been at the heart of this incompetent government for 17 years and at the heart of the SNP for 40 years.

A backroom stitch-up means it's possible no SNP members, let alone voters, will get a say in who Scotland's next first minister is. So what does Swinney's record look like? He was deputy first minister during the Covid pandemic - although it's hard to scrutinise his role as, like so many SNP figures, he had wiped his messages and destroyed evidence by the time the Covid Inquiry requested them.

Before that he was tasked with closing Scotland's shameful attainment gap as education secretary - a task he failed miserably at, and our children are now living with the consequences.

He was the worst education secretary in the history of the Scottish Parliament.

Not only did the attainment gap widen on his watch, he was also responsible for the Covid exam scandal in which the SQA attempted to downgrade the exam results of pupils in the most deprived communities.

And of course, he was the finance secretary responsible for destroying public finances and laying the groundwork for the current budget black hole.