David Pratt: SNP Westminster lapdogs have lost capacity to bite

They are in effect prerequisites made easy by a UK Government that at every turn leaves itself wide open to punishing and effective political attack from within the ranks of our SNP politicians at Westminster.

But where oh where are these Scottish political raiders to be found? Maybe it’s just me but I see precious little evidence of them within the SNP’s elected ranks be they at Holyrood, and certainly not at Westminster.

But let’s start with what the SNP’s Westminster cabal are good at or, to put it another way, those attributes of which they are bestowed aplenty. I’m talking about posturing, posing, hand-wringing, evasion, telling us what any joined-up-thinking person already knows about “Big Bad Boris” – as if talking to children in fairly-tale language rather than respecting the wishes and desires of a grown-up electorate that put them in office.

We put them there to take the fight to this UK Government with the expectation that they would do just that. Most of course we know from their now familiar election victory speeches, expressed their profound thanks to those of us that voted for them, pledging their undying allegiance to their constituents and to leave no stone unturned in justifying voters trust in them or gaining Scotland its sovereignty.

Then down south they canter to the big house and they become swallowed up or seduced by its “charms”. This is a tale that often involves political inadequates who once having taken their seats are full of meaningless sound and mock fury all of which signifies nothing in real political terms from Scotland’s perspective.

The inescapable fact is that making vacuous noises does not substitute for making real dents in the Tory government or bringing Scotland closer to its own decision-making.

For me and I’m sure many other Scots these have become the worrying traits lying in plain sight when it comes to the SNP’s supposed political “big beasts” at Westminster.

It’s as if not one among them really wants to get the jackets off and get stuck in against a UK Government that is already and increasingly punch-drunk from its own self-inflicted blows.

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Where is the evidence of a carefully considered strategy or concerted campaigning that would make those of us Scots back home sit up and take notice and say to ourselves: “Now you’re doing more than talking.”

What I want is a bark with an accompanying bite that would convince us that these SNP MPs really have our backs and in turn would most likely lead to the opinion polls on independence turning again in our favour at a rate of knots.

As a Scot I need reconvincing right now that all this is in hand and that those representing us at Westminster are holding the Tory government’s feet to the fire at every turn, exposing their lies and countermanding them whenever possible.

This were it to be done with passion, conviction and the right measure of ruthlessness is what I as a Scot want to see right now. No more comfortable Scottish Westminster lapdogs but those instead with teeth. My God, it’s a sad day indeed when Dominic Cummings becomes Scotland’s best political attack dog against the gross failings of the Tories.

For those reading this asking what specifically do I want our SNP MPs to get their teeth into, then can I direct them to one single article in last week’s New Statesman. It was written not by a Scot but by a German, Annette Dittert, London bureau chief and senior correspondent of the German public broadcaster ARD. Talk about hitting nails on the head?

The article, entitled The Politics Of Lies: Boris Johnson And The Erosion Of The Rule Of Law, is not just a scathing dismantling of the UK Government, the arguments Dittert puts forward should be precisely the armoury of political weapons we might have expected the SNP to draw on continuously as part of any concerted attack on the Tories.

Johnson’s pathological relationship with the truth, vulnerable democracy, power over the media, widespread corruption and Brexit failures – these are just some of the issues that the writer drills into with an excoriating critique that if likewise brought to bear with force and cleverness by the SNP at Westminster would serve them well. Who knows, it might even go some way to reassuring those Scots that voted for them that they have their interests at heart and know how to deliver a challenging political broadside.

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As Annette Dittert points out, “the crucial question now is who should publicly address these (Tory) attacks and repel them”.

Few surely would disagree with the notion that the SNP’s elected members at Westminster, if as politically progressive as they make out, should be in the vanguard of addressing these attacks. This especially when Scotland’s sovereign aspirations hinge on them.

Some will complain that SNP bashing is not healthy. I agree and have always maintained that solidarity is vital for independence to be realised. But my job as a journalist is also to hold power or lack of it to account.

Put quite simply, these things matter right now like never before, not least in a time of negative opinion polls and frustration over the slowness in moving towards another indyref.

If the SNP is going to argue that another indyref must wait until we can be sure of winning, then in the meantime at the very least it could show itself knocking lumps out of the arguments that the Tories and other Unionists at Westminster throw up in Scotland’s way.

Only the other day on Twitter I noticed an SNP MP saying, “roll on recess”. Yes, it must be hell right now in the Westminster madhouse now that “Freedom Day” is upon England. But it’s hell here too in Scotland where freedom to decide our own future remains elusive and watching next to nothing being done about it by those that we elected to lead the charge.