Scots can be proud of First Minister Humza Yousaf. He has shown grace under huge personal pressure - calmly expressing compassion for everyone caught up in the horrors of the last week in Israel and Gaza, despite having family members involved.
Just to explain - I’m not going to write about the situation there - many people more qualified than I are doing that. Here in Scotland, it is good to see Yousaf show leadership by reaching out to all the communities affected and trying to reassure them.
Yousaf’s parents-in-law - Elizabeth, a retired nurse from Dundee, and Maged El-Nakla went to Gaza to visit Maged’s 92-year-old mother, along with their son, his wife and four grandchildren, the youngest a tiny baby. Yousaf has been interviewed on several media outlets, sometimes wiping away a tear, talking movingly about their plight. He has explained that he is having trouble sleeping and how he is trying to do what he can to support his wife Nadia but feels powerless. He also said that the UK Foreign Minister James Cleverly has not responded to his calls, which seems extraordinary.
The writer William Dalrymple tweeted: “The most impressive politician in the United Kingdom in the last week of horror and crisis in the Middle East has been, without exception, @HumzaYousaf…I am not a Scottish nationalist, and never voted SNP. But I can't think of a time I've been prouder to be Scottish. Thank you Humza and hats off and your bravery, poise, calm, compassion and humanity.” Dalrymple retweeted a touching image of Yousaf comforting the family of Bernard Cowan, killed in the massacre by Hamas, at a prayer service with Scotland’s Jewish community (above).
There have already been reports of rising incidences of anti-Semitism in the UK, including an attack on a Kosher restaurant in Golders Green. There are huge pressures on Palestinian families here too. Yousaf's kindness is welcome in these troubled days.
Political pressure
The pressure on Yousaf will increase tomorrow when the SNP conference - the last before the next general election - opens with a crucial debate on the route to independence.
Yousaf faces the task of reinvigorating the party which is on the back foot. It lost the Rutherglen by election of course, and it is still under the cloud of Operation Branch Form, the police investigation into its finances. Scotland now has a new police chief, Jo Farrell, who took up her post last week. A new broom may want to get this affair done and dusted - it has been dragging on since 2021.
Whatever happens with that, Yousaf and his party will have to agree on an offer for the next general election. The suggestion is that they campaign on the idea that a majority of seats - even if it is less than they have now - would constitute a mandate to negotiate for independence. But surely Westminster’s First Past the Post is an unfair system that delivers majorities on a third of the vote?
A referendum is still the best way to deliver major constitutional change. Westminster says they won’t grant another one but I think it makes more sense to keep pushing at that door. If support for independence reaches a consistent 55% it will be hard to refuse.
The other thing the SNP will have to decide is how they will work with the incoming Labour government. I think they should push for a referendum on abolishing the House of Lords. This is a major constitutional change that Labour promised and is now rapidly back-tracking on. The House of Lords is an affront to Scotland - there are more peers with ‘Siberia’ in their title than there are supporters of independence. Boris Johnson’s former tennis partner has more power - including the right to debate and amend legislation affecting Scotland - than Humza Yousaf does. And ‘Lord’ Ross Kempsell, who is 31, is a member of the UK Parliament for life.
Labour can’t be serious about maintaining the Union without abolishing the Lords, pushing for the referendum will simply make the point that the UK is broken. Keir Starmer made a good point in his conference speech when he said that Scottish voters are not only looking at the party - they are looking at the country.
Very well said! Humza Youssf is sane and balanced in a world of imbalance. Thanks to William Dalrymple for recognizing his qualities.
Yousaf has behaved with calm, compassion and good sense under the most enormous pressure. Unlike Starmer and Sunak he has responded to events in a way that will stand the test of time.