Mhairi Black typified much of what is wrong with today's politicians

The Herald Scotland

5 days ago

Mhairi Black's resignation, reported exclusively by The Herald, was different. She took a general broadside at multiple issues she disagreed with but a Geoffrey Howe or a Robin Cook evisceration it was not. Like much of the promise a young(er) Mhairi Black showed, the final departure failed to deliver and was met with a shrug of the shoulders and a general 'so what' from so many.
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Predictably there was no hiding from the LGB and TQ quagmire issues that have now become synonymous with the SNP. Indeed, there is more than a hint of irony that one of the main reasons cited by Ms Black for walking was what she sees as the SNP's roll-back on trans rights – something I'm certain her fellow resignee Joanna Cherry would have spat her tea out at on reading.
In more ways than either would care to admit, Black shares a trait with her long-time political honourable 'friend.' Whilst Ms Cherry's resignation from the SNP was on the cards for some time as a result of her deplorable treatment within the party, it's fair to say Ms Black's loyalty to the party that gave her a profile and made her a kind of household name was on equally shaky ground once the ideology of the campaigner met the reality of pragmatic politics.
Her reported threat to publicly resign on the eve of the 2023 Hamilton West by-election in a bid to secure a nomination for one of her advisors to succeed her would have seen any serious party hoofing her unceremoniously onto the political streets. A fervent critic of the toxic Westminster culture, she seemingly had little hesitation in deploying some of its grubbiest tactics when the ends worked in her favour.
To be fair, and whilst there was little doubt that Ms Black was and indeed remains a skilled and passionate orator, I was always slightly sceptical about the 'future leader' tag that was applied to her within a matter of months of making a name for herself within the party ranks.
Her election in 2015, whilst monumental both in terms of her tender years, and that she defeated the shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander was not in reality that remarkable when set against the political hurricane that all but obliterated Labour of the Scottish electoral map. To plagiarise the well hackneyed phrase – you could have put a yellow rosette on a monkey … (and in many cases they did).
Black was a mere 20 years of age when elected and typified much of what is wrong with many of the public servants of today. They come from an ideological and puritanical world for they have never had to be pragmatic – as all the hard yards have been done by those who care little about being in the limelight. The need to continue to build consensus in the way the 20 / 30 / 40-year campaigners and activists on whose backs they rode to victory on was something they were never going to do.
There were new days, new beginnings, where a gospel was to be preached. If you didn't agree there was no need to debate – dissent was heresy pure and simple – besides there were plenty in the echo chamber who agreed. The enlightened were not only the voices that were listed to, they were the only voices listed to.
Black was not so much an uncompromising politician but a no compromise politician. She was a very public example of the kind of thinking and ideology that had slowly but systematically infected many of our public services and institutions. We are seeing one of the very worst examples of that playing out in all its gory and unedifying details at the employment tribunal brought by Sandie Peggie against NHS Fife and its transgender doctor Beth Upton.
Where I agree with Mhairi Black that Scotland should proudly grow its reputation on the world stage, you'd be hard pushed to find many headlines you'd want to boast about since 2014. Whether we like it or not most of them come down to a dogmatism and hostility dressed as piety that Black and so many like her have championed.
Edinburgh Rape Crisis, Isla Bryson, Amy George, Gender Self ID, the failed attempts to criminalise 'offensive' words, the continual dog's breakfast over how to record the sex of rapists, and the basins full of word soup spouted out by standing armies of what are increasingly turning out to be idiots - to avoid answering the 'what is a woman' question, are quite legacy for the no debaters.
I have thought that each of these examples, egregious in their own right, would have been enough to stir the potential for moments of reflection but that is not the way of the modern 'progressive' world. As we are seeing what was a successfully cowed public mood beginning to shift, the willingness of the sane people who had for too long been holding their wheest, to say 'enough of this madness' has grown from muttering in living rooms to choirs of voices being quiet no more.
Mhairi Black and countless like her wanted to change Scotland and there is little doubt they have done so. The trouble for them is they don't like what the fruit of their labour has produced. Absent a willingness to change course – or dare I say it seek to persuade that their vision is a better one it's time to get out of the way and leave the hard work of campaigning to others. Who knows - after another 30 years of folk undoing the damage that's been done - that might be time to come out from the shadows once more.
Calum Steele is a former General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, and former general secretary of the International Council of Police Representative Associations. He remains an advisor to both