The sort of situational intuition people would have hoped to see in the election of a Presiding Officer today did not materialise.
Tricia Marwick, an SNP MSP for a Fife constituency, was elected to the post with the support of her party.
The graceful move that would have lifted Scottish politics to a level unique in the UK would have seen the majority party support a candidate from another party. This was a missed opportunity to send a signal Scotland would have risen to welcome,
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I agree that this is an opportunity missed for our new parliament and does not sent out a good message for things to come.
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I wouldn’t read too much into this. By the nature of the post, the presiding Officer is politically neutral so it shouldn’t matter which party they are from. At Westminster it is quite usual for the Speaker to come from the party of Government and I have never heard anyone suggest that the Speaker should always come from the opposition when there is a majority government.
Of course, Newsroom’s point is that perhaps this was an opportunity to show that Holyrood is different but this should not be at the expense of producing the best solution for the parliament. There were only three candidates and from only two parties standing for the post. There was a feeling that in true Buggin’s fashion it was Labour’s turn. Unfortunately, I understand that there was a perception that the Labour candidate had been too partisan in the past for the SNP MSPs to comfortably support him so they went for one of the candidates from their own party.
I don’t think this will make any difference to the operation of the parliament and I’m sure that Tricia Marwick will discharge her duties in a non-partisan style – indeed she may be bending over backwards to show that she does not favour the Government.
I noticed the BBC was trying to generate froth on this issue and the related issue of the SNP controlling the main parliamentary committees, suggesting that this would lead to a lack of scrutiny of legislation. This is of course the net product of democracy and the electoral system at Holyrood. While the SNP did not quite achieve 50% of the vote they did obtain more than 50% of the seats and so are entitled to govern as they see fit.
The difficulty is actually for the SNP. In the absence of an effective opposition (and it remains to be seen how effective the opposition parties can be) how can they themselves ensure that their legislation and government rule remains consensual and for the good of Scotland? It will be interesting to see how they tackle this conundrum.
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I would have liked to see Bella putting herself forward but if she didn’t want to…
“Tricia Marwick will discharge her duties in a non-partisan style – indeed she may be bending over backwards to show that she does not favour the Government.”….
.. and be sure that the MSM (forargyll & Newsnet Scotland excepted) will be looking for any slight examples of SNP partisanship in Tricia’s behaviour as Presiding Officer.
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For Barmore 2: We don’t for one moment think that Tricia Marwick will be anything other than non-partisan.
We feel that it is a pity that this second SNP administration – and after so emphatic a positive vote by the nation for its competence in government – should start with gracelessness where grace would have lifted Scotland’s sense of its potential political life to a new vantage point.
It also seems politically unintelligent. Tricia Marwick took a Fife constituency that is something of a scalp for the SNP. They must want to keep that seat. That needs dedicated constituency work. Given the high profile ceremonial and hospitality role of the Presiding Officer, is this possible? Perhaps, of course, it’s even more possible, which might explain the action – without reducing its unfortunate lack of grace.
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