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For fans of political bin fires, recent weeks at the Scottish Parliament have resembled an inferno at an electric battery factory.
asserted
weeks → see → factory
If you’re a sensible taxpayer/voter of a sensitive disposition, you might choose to read no further ...
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you → ’re → disposition
For those who’ve decided to proceed, please buckle up.
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who → decide → those
During my five years as an MSP inside the concrete bunker at the foot of the Royal Mile, I thought that I’d become numbed to the antics of John Swinney’s SNP.
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I → think → SNP
But these masters of grubby dishonesty, breath-taking waste, greeting-faced grievance and mind-numbing incompetence still have the capacity to shock.
And that’s now complemented by the novelty act of Nigel Farage’s Reform, whose amateurism and amateur dramatics at Holyrood are a gift to the SNP.
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amateurism → take → SNP
We’ve seen £136,000-a-year transport secretary Stephen ‘mini-Swinney’ Flynn giving evidence to parliament’s transport committee.
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Flynn → see → committee
From posturing at Westminster to smirking at Holyrood, he seemed flippantly ignorant of his brief – including details of a flammable gas escape on a CalMac ferry.
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he → smirk → ferry
The same committee was treated to one of its members, confused SNP backbencher Collette Stevenson, asking if the government’s national transport agency was a charity.
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agency → treat → members
Collette Stevenson asked if the government’s national transport agency was a charity
You may have missed Alyn Smith, the SNP innovation minister, apparently nodding off in the chamber.
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Smith → ask → chamber
In his defence, Mr Swinney was speaking at the time.
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Swinney → speak → time
Then there was education secretary Màiri McAllan (another £136,000 of taxpayers’ cash) denying hard facts about Scotland tumbling down global education league tables.
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Scotland → be → tables
She also rejected an invitation from ex-UK government education minister Michael Gove to discuss how he transformed English schools.
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he → reject → schools
Long-suffering Scottish pupils should know that this Nicola Sturgeon protégé refused to take any lessons from Mr Gove ... simply because he’s a Conservative.
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he → suffer → Gove
Sadly, this small-mindedness is consistent with the SNP’s pathological need to build barriers with our friends south of Hadrian’s Wall – and to manufacture rows with the UK government at every opportunity.
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mindedness → build → opportunity
Their petty approach goes some way to explaining why Scottish patients still don’t have a multi-purpose NHS app like those elsewhere in the country.
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patients → go → country
And why our police officers are years behind their counterparts in England and Wales when it comes to the protection of body-worn cameras.
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it → come → cameras
I sometimes ask myself – Are there no depths to how low the SNP will sink so long as it gives them a phoney row with Westminster?
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it → ask → Westminster
Well, I got my answer this week when it was confirmed that Scotland’s drug death rate remained the highest in Europe, for the eighth consecutive year.
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rate → get → year
Last year, 1,133 lives were cut short.
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lives → cut → ?
Step forward Maree Todd who suggested that Westminster was actually to blame due to the Misuse of Drugs Act being reserved.
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Westminster → step → Act
Ms Todd is just the latest SNP drugs minister to blindly pursue so-called ‘harm reduction’ policies at the expense of giving addicts the help they need - and cracking down on parasite gangsters who profit from death.
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who → pursue → death
She’s not the first to suggest, although never actually explain why, devolving UK-wide laws on drug classification would save a single Scottish life.
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devolving → ’ → life
All these SNP politicians conveniently forget that their drug consumption unit is operating when, for years, they falsely claimed that it could not because of the same UK-wide drug law.
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it → forget → law
And they also forget that Dorothy Bain, appointed Lord Advocate by Nicola Sturgeon, effectively decriminalised possession of Class A drugs, including heroin and crack cocaine.
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Bain → forget → heroin
This misguided policy was enacted five years ago despite the same UK-wide drug laws.
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policy → enact → laws
It must now be reviewed.
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It → review → ?
Mr Swinney’s government, having long ago declared a ‘national mission’ on drug deaths, exploits the mass loss of life in furtherance of their nationalist strategy of division.
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government → declare → division
The Glasgow unit where addicts go to shoot up, at a multi-million pound annual cost to taxpayers, opened at the beginning of 2025.
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addicts → go → 2025
Since then, drug deaths in Glasgow have risen.
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deaths → rise → Glasgow
When I challenged Mr Swinney at First Minister's Questions, he said the evidence proved it was a success.
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it → challenge → Questions
And he committed to pressing ahead with more such units, starting in Edinburgh.
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he → commit → Edinburgh
Last year, the Scottish Conservatives gave the SNP an opportunity to do the right thing with a proposed new law to give people the right to help – rather than being trapped in the hell of addiction.
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Conservatives → give → addiction
But they, along with their Green party allies, rejected my predecessor Douglas Ross’s Right to Recovery Bill.
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they → reject → Bill
I’m certain their decision will cost even more lives.
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decision → ’m → lives
In response to the latest drug death figures, I and my Tory colleagues have worked diligently to challenge the SNP on their fatally failed approach.
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I → work → approach
At FMQs, I also put Mr Swinney on the spot over Ms Todd’s crass blaming of Westminster.
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I → put → Westminster
Following FMQs, I was astonished to hear him say that his party still wanted to decriminalise the possession of all drugs – including ultra potent and deadly synthetic opioids.
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party → follow → opioids
His extraordinary admission came just moment after he had acknowledged that these man-made substances already kill many Scots.
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substances → come → Scots
This goes to the heart of how wrong the SNP are.
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SNP → go → heart
They devote vast sums of taxpayers’ money to support drug taking and think they’re being kind.
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they → devote → taking
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
