Andy Maciver

This time last month, Scotland had a First Minister whose competence, fairly or unfairly, was in question, and whose government was detached from the concerns of the everyday person. A government which prioritised issues about which few cared, and then landed on the wrong side of those issues. This time next month, Scotland seems likely to have a First Minister whose middle name is Competence, and whose government may be ready to reacquaint itself with the matters of importance to the everyday people of this country.

In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity. These words were first attributed to the Chinese general Sun Tzu over 2,500 years ago, but they should also, today, be plastered all over the wall of Humza Yousaf’s office.

The Holyrood system is failing. The committees are so dominated by whipped political parties that they are offering next-to-none of the sceptical scrutiny which is central to their role. Scotland needs to jump onto the bicameral bandwagon

Ministers need to raise their eyes above the walls of the Edinburgh buildings they work in and read the mood of the people outside it. They would do well to start with Scotland’s schools.

Nineteen and forty-one. In respect of this year’s looming General Election, and the number of seats to be won by the SNP, these are wildly different returns, and would have wildly different consequences.

The NHS, in all of its mildly different forms across the UK, is not a good health service relative to our rich peer countries. So what is to be done?

On Wednesday, the Climate Change Committee eviscerated the Government over its failure to meet its target of reducing 1990 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030. Emissions are already down by around 50 per cent, so categorising the Government’s performance as an abject failure is harsh.

The UK was an incredibly centralised country; no Parliaments or Assemblies, no mayors and impotent local authorities. In other English-speaking jurisdictions, which we helped to create, in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the USA, decision-making authority is heavily decentralised, yet we remained an outlier. The same was true of our European neighbours.

When news broke, on Tuesday evening, that Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross was on "resignation watch", joined the next day by his colleague and Energy Minister Andrew Bowie, a quote from Paula Coelho’s The Alchemist came to mind: “Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.”

Liz Truss is Britain’s type on paper. The daughter of a university professor father and a mother who was a teacher and nurse, young Elizabeth grew up in a humble home of hard workers. She lived in various places, including along the road in Paisley where she went to primary school.