COLIN CAMPBELL: If Fergus Ewing stands as an independent, SNP will be driven to despair
Unless there are further twists in the tale - which seems unlikely - Fergus Ewing will not stand for the SNP in next year's Holyrood elections, bringing to an end his by then 27-year role as an MSP.
This follows a confusing on-off saga in which it was reported that he wanted another term as an SNP politician, doubts over whether the party would agree to that, and last month further reports that the SNP hierarchy had "caved in" and agreed that he could represent them in the 2026 election.
In recent times, however, it often seemed more likely that he would henceforth represent Labour, the Tories, or the Elon Musk Alliance rather than the SNP.
That's because he has for the past two years and more spent much of his time tearing lumps out of them.
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Among other things, Fergus Ewing was fiercely critical of the SNP government's delay and bungling in their failure to achieve targets for upgrading the A9. He scathingly branded the Greens as "wine bar revolutionaries" when a couple of them, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, were ministers propping up the SNP government, and were behind hopeless failures like the Deposit Return Scheme, which cost tens of millions to partly set up and then was scrapped.
And he was contemptuous of Nicola Sturgeon's obsession with gender reform. If she'd got her way any male over the age of 16 could have entered a venue like the Inverness Leisure centre, declared he was identifying as a woman, and then walked into the female changing rooms. And there was literally nothing anyone could legally have done about it. Fortunately, this madness was blocked by Westminster.
That was Sturgeon, followed by Humza Yousaf, and John Swinney, and that was the SNP government, and it's very clear indeed that Mr Ewing was heartily sick of it. And last July's general election showed how right he was, when a massive voter backlash decimated the SNP presence at Westminster.
Far from criticising, ostracising and then suspending him, SNP bosses should have been thanking him for pointing out the blatant error of their ways on these issues and others Mr Ewing angrily brought up as well.
However there was never any chance of that happening, as he must have known before he uttered a word of dissent.
Essentially his stance is "someone needed to speak out". But if he stood again for the SNP, who would people be voting for? Someone who was proud to be a member of the party they represent, like any other elected candidate would be? Or an SNP politician who, from day one of being returned to office would continue to tear his party to shreds and be its fiercest critic.
Mr Ewing had a substantial majority at the last election but that was when the SNP were at a high point and were peddling the then reasonably credible prospect that an SNP majority at Holyrood could lead to another referendum. There was profound relief among Unionists when that didn't happen.
Things are very different now, as Drew Hendry and a host of now former SNP MPs discovered last July.
Highlands and Islands regional MSP Emma Roddick has announced her intention to seek selection as the SNP candidate to replace Fergus Ewing. How she will fare if chosen is anyone's guess.
But if the generally popular Mr Ewing decides to stand in 2026 as an independent candidate, as he has strongly hinted, at least one thing is certain - the SNP hierarchy, who now no doubt would be glad to see the back of him, will be clawing the air with their hands in despair.
