Writing exclusively for the Scottish Daily Express, Scots Tory MSP STEPHEN KERR says voters in the capital deserve far better than the ‘politics of ego and distraction’ on offer from the SNP and the Greens
Former Scottish Green co-leader Lorna Slater (left) will stand against SNP Cabinet Secretary Angus Robertson in Edinburgh Central(Image: )
Voters in Edinburgh Central are being offered one of the bleakest choices in Scottish politics. On one side stands Angus Robertson, the SNP’s long-serving culture secretary. On the other is Lorna Slater, the former co-leader of the Scottish Greens and a former minister.
Rarely have two candidates confronted one another having demonstrated such a shared record of incompetence, neglect of duty and indifference to the interests of taxpayers.
Start with Angus Robertson. For five years he has enjoyed the privileges of Cabinet office: control over substantial budgets, international travel, and direct responsibility for Scotland’s cultural institutions. That position carries both power and obligation.
Yet far too much of that time has been absorbed by overseas trips, political posturing and glossy independence white papers that changed nothing and delivered even less. While Scotland’s cultural sector needed grip, focus and leadership, its Cabinet Secretary was often elsewhere, literally and figuratively.
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What stands out is not just poor outcomes, but the absence of basic ministerial seriousness. Boards of public bodies for which he was directly accountable went long periods without meaningful engagement. Strategic oversight was weak, challenge was minimal, and problems were allowed to drift.
That is how organisations slide into difficulty. It does not happen by chance. It happens when delivery is treated as optional. Nowhere is that clearer than at Historic Environment Scotland, the body charged with safeguarding some of our most important national assets and a cornerstone of Edinburgh’s cultural economy.
Instead of firm oversight and accountability, concerns about governance, leadership and value for money were tolerated and waved through. That is not stewardship. It is negligence. Alongside this failure of delivery sat an almost boundless appetite for grievance politics.
Angus Robertson posing with an NYPD cop in New York in 2022(Image: )
Angus Robertson expended more energy picking fights over BBC weather maps and imagined slights than grappling with the real challenges of the portfolio he is paid handsomely to run. He even attempted to interfere in the Eurovision Song Contest. He set up so-called “embassies” at enormous cost to the taxpayer in New York, Copenhagen, Paris and Berlin.
This is the politics of ego and distraction: invent a grievance, change the subject, and avoid responsibility. That same pattern of unserious government is evident on the other side of this contest. Lorna Slater’s ministerial record was defined by ideological rigidity and administrative chaos.
From the shambolic deposit return scheme to her hostility towards business and investment, she embodied a style of politics that confuses moral posturing with competence. When policies unravelled, the response was never reflection or reform. It was blame, slogans and denial.
Lorna Slater(Image: )
READ MORE: Lorna Slater mocked for ‘tax the King’ video after her own blunders cost the public purse millions
Governing requires judgement, evidence and the ability to deliver. She showed none of them. Between them, these two candidates represent everything that has gone wrong in Scottish politics after nearly two decades of SNP government, propped up by the Greens. Long on rhetoric. Short on results.
They have both had chances most people will never have, and they have wasted them. The price has been paid by the public through weaker public services, squandered resources and a growing sense that nobody at the top is really in charge. The deeper problem is that truth and evidence have all but disappeared from our political debate.
Too many politicians now chase applause with easy slogans, talking endlessly about problems they have neither the intention nor the ability to fix. That corrodes public trust, lowers standards in public life and leaves voters cynical. There is an alternative. The Scottish Conservatives are prepared to confront reality as it is, not as we wish it to be.
Scotland held back by self-serving mediocrity at the top
We are honest about the scale of the challenge facing Scotland. We do not pretend there are pain-free answers. But we are serious about delivery. That means an economic strategy focused on growth, enterprise and job creation, rebuilding a productive tax base rather than endlessly redistributing a shrinking one.
It means real reform of public services, especially health and education, based on evidence and outcomes rather than ideology. People across Scotland can see that things are not working. They are not looking for slogans or excuses. They are looking for competence, honesty and leadership.
The choice in Edinburgh Central this May is stark. More failure dressed up as virtue, or a serious Conservative alternative grounded in truth, evidence and the hard work of governing. Scotland’s potential is being held back by self-serving mediocrity at the top. Voters in Edinburgh Central deserve better than this. I would not blame them if they locked their front doors until polling day.
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