Ian Blackford's decision signals the rise of a new generation

The National

2 days ago

FORMER SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford, who announced in June 2023 that he did not intend to stand for reelection to his Ross, Skye, and Lochaber seat at the 2024 Westminster General Election following his replacement as Westminster leader by Aberdeen South MP Stephen Flynn in December 2022, recently raised some eyebrows by announcing that he was giving "careful consideration" to making a return to frontline politics and standing as a candidate in next year's Holyrood election.
He said that he had had calls from supporters urging him to stand in the constituency of Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch after its current MSP – Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes – announced she will be standing down.
But in a post on social media on Thursday evening, Blackford said that while he was "grateful" for these calls, he had "reflected carefully" and decided after all that he is not going to stand.
However, he clarified that he was not ruling out a return to frontline politics in the future.
He wrote: "With Kate Forbes having announced she would not be contesting the seat of Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch at the Scottish Parliament in 2026, I have received many promptings to potentially represent the SNP in the election next year.
"I am very grateful to all those who have encouraged me to step forward for the 2026 election. I was particularly minded that many of those prompting me were those I have campaigned with for many years – people I have the highest respect for and who I hold very dearly.
"It was out of a deep respect to all of these people that, although I had previously stated that I would not stand for the Scottish Parliament, I decided to give due consideration to those requests."
Blackford went on to say that he was "honoured" to have been asked to stand and that "I do not take lightly the responsibility that they all encouraged me to take on".
He added: "Having reflected carefully I have concluded that I will not present my name as a potential candidate for the 2026 election."
"I do believe that I am still of an age that I can serve my party and my country.
"I joined the SNP as a teenager in the 1970's and I see the journey to independence as being very much unfinished business. I will support the SNP and its leader, my old friend and colleague John Swinney, to the full.
"My firm judgement is that the UK is not far off another financial crisis that would be cataclysmic. In short – Britain is broken.'
Blackford went on to call on his SNP colleagues to explore "how we can make Scotland a safe haven" through independence.
"Working with others I do want to participate in that debate on our future and perhaps, in the time ahead, there may be future opportunities to return to front line politics.
"On this occasion though – after careful consideration – I will not be putting my name forward for next year's Scottish parliament elections.
"The opportunity and the privilege of seeking to represent this Highland's seat at the Scottish Parliament will fall to another and we are fortunate to have a range of capable candidates in the SNP.
"Whomever my party chooses, they will have my full support in what I am confident will be a successful election for the SNP under the leadership of John Swinney."
Blackford's decision not to stand again signals an important milestone in the history of the SNP, and the rise of a new generation of younger politicians who grew up in the era of devolution and who have always known the existence of a Scottish Parliament.
This generation of people in their 30s take it for granted that Scotland should become an independent country. It is already the settled will of this generation of Scots, and as they gradually replace older generations in the electorate, people who are far more doubtful and fearful of independence, a desire for independence will gradually become the settled will of the people of Scotland as a whole.
This is a generation which needs a different approach to Scottish independence. Unlike previous generations, millennials and Gen Z do not need to be persuaded of the viability of an independent Scotland, they need to be persuaded of a plausible route to get there. That's going to take a younger generation of politicians who are prepared to be more confrontational in the face of Westminster's constitutional roadblocks.
Talking of constitutional roadblocks...
Talking of constitutional roadblocks, or possibly constitutional road bollocks, Scottish Tory MSP Craig Hoy, a man who has never allowed the inconvenient fact that the Conservatives have not won an election in Scotland in his lifetime get in the way of his petulant entitlement, has written to the Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government, Joe Griffin.
He has demanded that former first minister Nicola Sturgeon be investigated for what Hoy insists was a breach of the ministerial code by asking the UK Supreme Court whether her government could hold the independence referendum which it had received a mandate to hold from the people of Scotland in the May 2021 Holyrood election, which Hoy's party fought on opposition to another independence referendum and which it lost badly.
In his letter, Hoy, who clearly has a problem accepting the verdict of the Scottish electorate, highlighted two parts of the code in a bid to back up his dubious argument, which the parts which state that ministers 'must not use public resources for party political purposes' and should 'ensure their decisions are informed by appropriate analysis of the legal considerations and that the legal implications of any course of action are considered at the earliest opportunity.'
But the Scottish Government has said the reference to the Supreme Court was 'entirely appropriate'.
A spokesperson said: 'The reference of this question to the Supreme Court was entirely appropriate and intended to achieve legal clarity over whether the Scottish Parliament had the legislative powers to hold an independence referendum, in light of majority support within the Parliament for a referendum. It did that.'