The SNP in 2024 is like the Titanic after it crashed into the iceberg.It doesn't matter who is at the helm the ship is sinking.

THE chaos of the last week shows Humza Yousaf is leading a party that has become ungovernable - and an independence movement in turmoil.

Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon led Scotland for 17 years and won countless elections against an enfeebled opposition.

But the SNP in 2024 is like the Titanic after it crashed into the iceberg. It doesn't matter who is at the helm, or what the strategy is, the ship is sinking.

Yousaf has had a dismal first year in the job since he succeeded Sturgeon.

He is viewed as weak by voters and his allies say he is an impressionable leader who is easily swayed.

He has failed to follow up on his grand rhetoric on child poverty with action and has struggled as First Minister.

But it would be unfair to pin the blame for the SNP's woes on Yousaf.

He inherited a party split ideologically between leftwingers, right-wingers and centrists.

The SNP he took over was brimming with personality clashes, bitter feuds and longstanding grievances.

The departed Salmond loathes Sturgeon, she despises him, and their supporters try to undo each other constantly.

Anyone replacing Yousaf Kate Forbes, Neil Gray or Mairi McAllan would be odds on to fail.

Forbes is against gay marriage, opposes births out of wedlock and is relaxed about anti-abortion activists praying outside clinics.

She is a centre-right, socially conservative politician wanting to lead a centre-left and socially liberal party.