Is Honesty the best Policy?

Kate Forbes forthright views on gay marriage and children outside of marriage have brought her a tsunami of criticism with some of her backers already retreating at the first whiff of grapeshot. At least Forbes will now know who she can trust in the trenches in the coming days (if she can stick it out).

In the debate between cock up or conspiracy I am usually firmly in the cock up camp, mainly as I don’t believe many of our politicians have the requisite Machiavellian skills to think more than one step ahead but I’m not too sure if Forbes can fall into this category. There were a number of ways she could have answered the questions she was asked, a bit of nuance, a tad of deflection, masterly evasion or even downright lies but she chose to confront them head on. Has she made a calculation that honesty is for her the best policy? Is her pitch “You might not like my views but I’m being 100% honest in what I say”. Compare with Humza Yousaf who looks decidedly slippery in comparison and seems to have manufactured a meeting with the Pakistani Consul with Responsibility for Paperclips so he could patch the final vote on the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill. What Forbes has guaranteed is that questions of faith are now fair game and Yousaf should now be asked all sorts of questions and if not then the hypocrisy of the media will be there for all to see.

Unfortunately for Forbes she isn’t appealing to a wide electorate who will be sympathetic to her views. SNP members who would maybe have at least listened to her have probably jumped ship after the GRR debacle. We are already seeing attempts to have her expelled from the party over her transgender comments. For a party that preaches tolerance they seem to be an intolerant bunch. Not for them the saying “I Disapprove of What You Say, But I Will Defend to the Death Your Right to Say It”. The SNP membership aren’t reflective of Scotland as a whole, if they were we would have been independent years ago and I still maintain that Scotland is mainly conservative (with a small c) country. This is a membership that isn’t used to honesty and being challenged, after all they have lapped up the case for independence which has been based on falsehoods, dodgy statistics and stirring up anti English sentiment. They want to be wrapped up in a comfort blanket and shielded from anyone who has alternative views.

I predicted that Forbes campaign was over and it still probably is but I would like to see her stick around till the debates. She almost certainly won’t win the leadership but maybe her eyes are on a future contest and in that case maybe honesty is the best policy, just not for now.