Scottish Parliament election is necessary to save us from this dysfunctional government – Euan McColm

Leading the torment of a Tory party so desperate and out of ideas that it had been forced to bring back an election-losing past leader would, I am certain, be the SNP. The nationalists – quite understandably – would point to the Tories and laugh. How ridiculous, they would say, that a serious political party is so bereft of capable politicians that it has to pull a candidate out of semi-retirement.

The normal rules, of course, don’t apply to the SNP which is why senior party figures have spent so much time telling members – and the rest of us – that John Swinney is the answer to turmoil caused by Humza Yousaf’s resignation on Monday. This, we are to accept, is all perfectly normal.

A serious, thoughtful man

Swinney – leader of the party between 2000 and 2004 before he was ousted and replaced by the man who had preceded him in the role, Alex Salmond – is, experience tells me, a serious and a thoughtful man. But none of Swinney’s qualities begins to conceal the fact that his installation as the next SNP leader would be the loudest possible admission that the nationalists have run out of road.

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Yousaf’s successor will be the SNP’s seventh leader at Holyrood. That list of politicians contains fewer names than it might. If Swinney returns, it will run: Alex Salmond, John Swinney, Nicola Sturgeon (who led at Holyrood while returning party boss Salmond remained at Westminster), Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon, Humza Yousaf, John Swinney. Any SNP politician tempted to speak about how their party is a great broad church packed with talent should zip it.

An unseemly stitch-up

The truth of the matter is that SNP members are now rallying around Swinney not because they think his leadership would be best for the country but because they think he stands the best chance of holding together a party riven by deepening splits over independence strategy and policy priorities. What we are witnessing is an unseemly stitch-up orchestrated by politicians driven by self-preservation.

Who is SNP veteran John Swinney who could replace Humza Yousaf as First Minister?

Were we now witnessing such chaos at the top of a Scottish Labour government, the SNP would be leading calls for a Holyrood election. The nationalists would insist things had reached such a crisis point that the only solution was to return to the electorate. I’d be right behind the SNP in those circumstances.

Scotland’s government is now so dysfunctional that it’s no longer viable. The return of John Swinney – or the election of any other leader by the SNP – will not bring the calm our politics needs. The timing isn’t perfect – kids are in the middle of exam season and families are preparing for summer holidays – but the situation is desperate.

If there’s to be any chance of restoring stability to Scotland's government, we need a Holyrood election, now.