I see the best bits from Glastonbury are running again on the BBC for viewers who just can’t leave it alone for another year.
It’s like people who don’t take their Christmas trees down until late January. Maybe they can’t face our big, bad world full of skint people, broken politicians and doomsday weather; “Glastomas” offers a cosy escape.
“Enough is enough,” people chanted despairingly in cost-of-living street demos up and down the country recently, including Aberdeen. Tired of politicians posturing behind the rhetoric of hare-brained ideological projects while the rest of us suffer.
We’ve had a few of these rammed down our throats in Scotland. The SNP’s doomed “totalitarian state” named person project, shambolic gender reform, bottle deposit schemes, and the reviled fishing ban around Scottish coasts.
That’s before I mention the ongoing horror of obscene ferry costs and lack of action over A9 road upgrades.
Politicians who dream up grandiose policies cannot afford to ignore local feelings on the ground.
The harsh reality of green policies hitting people in the pocket will become a familiar feature of grappling with climate change. Look what happened to Labour in the Uxbridge by-election.
Instead of wiping the floor with the Tories, local voters incensed by the Labour mayor’s Ulez (Ultra Low Emission Zone) taught them a harsh lesson. U-turns are ringing out from Uxbridge and Ulez, and all the way to Yousaf.
Patience is also wearing thin in Aberdeen, where council officials have grown fond of introducing seismic traffic alterations to drive out cars. But deploy obscure regulations to avoid consulting the public in advance and local democracy suffers.
Like Axl Rose, Yousaf is struggling to be heard
Reflecting again on Glastonbury, I was struck by how fans were at odds over Arctic Monkeys and Elton John. Elton tuned in better with his wider audience; he gave them something comforting.
Sandwiched between them on that memorable Glastonbury weekend in June was another act you might have missed. Humza Yousaf strutted his stuff on stage, but in the less glamorous surroundings of the SNP conference in Dundee.
Yousaf has now moved onto touring Scotland this summer with his own back catalogue; an uncomfortable, mixed reception awaits.
Dave Grohl joins Guns N' Roses on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury for 'Paradise City' 🌹 pic.twitter.com/gqJx8anjBT
— Far Out Magazine (@FarOutMag) June 24, 2023
His favourite tune – Independence is the People’s Will – always sounds badly off-key with the wider general public he needs to convince. He is starting to remind me of Axl Rose’s performance at Glastonbury.
If you remember, Axl was struggling to be heard by a lot of people at home for various reasons, but inside the arena we were assured his voice was cutting right through to the fans at his feet. In that respect, it was like a normal SNP conference discussing independence: preaching to the converted, but not reaching the mainstream.
Post-Sturgeon SNP era isn’t anything new
After a brutal, dog-eat-dog SNP leadership battle, I had the distinct impression that the party would tread a refreshing new path. After the toxic “polarising” years which forced Nicola Sturgeon out.
Surely a new era would avoid pandering to the diehard membership exclusively, and try to attract mainstream doubters who had to be won over to build a solid case for independence?
The SNP might try to reach 60 or 70% territory for Yes in the polls – for a convincing and prolonged period – instead of clinging on by its fingernails to 50% or less, as it has for the past decade.
Yousaf has fallen into the same trap as Sturgeon, and is in danger of being unable to close the gulf with the wider public; it’s almost as though she’s still pulling the strings. Like her, he struggles to articulate what he means when talking about making the case for independence from a dubious melting pot of Scottish results in the next general election.
Now there’s a faint drumming sound: not for independence, but another challenge over who leads the SNP. Some activists within his ranks are already weary of Yousaf’s so-called “pontification” over independence, and lack of decisiveness.
Change the record, Humza
In the past few days, we have been dragged into his latest independence instalment – who gets a Scottish passport. I’ve already got two – UK and Irish passports; I don’t need any more, thanks.
Is this what the vast number of ordinary people think about in hard times like this?
Trying to keep everyone happy in his party is nigh on impossible for Yousaf; it tends to end in tears.
Individual votes are what count in referendums, but even in recent parliamentary elections, the SNP share was less than 50%
Like roulette, his chips are on turning the next general election into an unofficial independence referendum, in effect. He speaks confusingly about SNP “seats or MPs” being the deciding factor.
That’s true in a parliamentary election, but not when bending the rules to draw referendum conclusions. Individual votes are what count in referendums, but even in recent parliamentary elections, the SNP share was less than 50%.
Sad to say, the way things are looking, I don’t think we’ll see Yousaf wowing us with his greatest hits any time soon.
David Knight is the long-serving former deputy editor of The Press and Journal