{"id":665889,"date":"2026-01-01T02:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T02:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/665889\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T02:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T02:06:12","slug":"nastiness-has-crept-into-holyrood-snp-chief-whip-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/665889\/","title":{"rendered":"Nastiness has crept into Holyrood, SNP chief whip says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Rona Mackay spoke about her time at Holyrood<\/a> since her election win in 2016 as she prepares to step down as an MSP.\n<\/p>\n

\n She applauded Parliament for its work on domestic abuse laws and key SNP policies such as free prescriptions during its time in charge.\n<\/p>\n

\n But the former journalist said that since her election, tribalism and nastiness has crept into the debating chamber in Edinburgh<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Energy bills to rise on New Year’s Day ‘to fund nuclear in England’, Ofgem says<\/strong><\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s got a tad more tribal on the opposition\u2019s side,\u201d the Strathkelvin and Bearsden MSP told the Press Association in her Holyrood office.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI don\u2019t think the public really appreciates squabbling and arguing \u2013 it\u2019s not attractive.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think that\u2019s probably got worse as a bit of nastiness has crept in.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s probably not been ideal for women. I\u2019ve been lucky but I know that some of my colleagues have had quite a stressful time online.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cBy and large, it reflects life really and it\u2019s just the way society is, I think, just now, and we just have to deal with it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Mackay is one of dozens of MSPs stepping down ahead of the election in May, including former first ministers Nicola Sturgeon<\/a> and Humza Yousaf<\/a>, as well as current Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n The SNP MSP said there were people in other parties whom she \u201creally likes\u201d and added that it was important to maintain friendships across the political aisle but suggested it was personal attacks in Holyrood that she took issue with.\n<\/p>\n

\n She said: \u201cI think anybody watching, for instance, First Minister\u2019s Questions or some of the debates, they can get very heated, and things can be said that I don\u2019t think the public appreciate. The shouting, and sometimes it gets personal to the ministers, who are usually on the front line.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThat\u2019s what I really mean by tribalism. We should appreciate good things that each party will bring to the table. You don\u2019t just vote something down or not like it because it wasn\u2019t your party that brought it forward.\n<\/p>\n

\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Scottish charity head rejects MBE over UK Government ‘demonising disabled people’<\/strong><\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think if there was a bit more of that, a bit more common sense and being reasonable, I think that might help for the next session.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Outside the chamber, Mackay warned against the \u201cworrying\u201d rise of \u201cdeeply misogynistic\u201d attacks made online against female members of Parliament, which she said was in part because some people viewed politicians as \u201cpublic property\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n She said abuse was a \u201clow\u201d point of being an MSP, and particularly a woman at Holyrood.\n<\/p>\n

\n Mackay said she made the decision early on in her parliamentary career to stand down in 2026, having been a journalist in newspapers for two decades.\n<\/p>\n

\n She said: \u201cI think it\u2019s important that you know when the time is right to go and I think for me it definitely is now, much as it\u2019s been an amazing privilege for the past decade to be here to represent my constituents with Strathkelvin and Bearsden. It\u2019s definitely time to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rona Mackay spoke about her time at Holyrood since her election win in 2016 as she prepares to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-665889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115817400452025776","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}