COLIN CAMPBELL: Amid SNP rancour, what does Drew Hendry make of Fergus Ewing now?
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Having missed the supposed target of dualling the A9 by multiple hazardous miles, the SNP government has now been accused of adopting tactics of secrecy, spin and evasion.
When a Freedom of Information request was submitted by The Inverness Courier for more detail on the reasons for the absence of progress on the road it was rejected by government-run Transport Scotland in order to maintain "high quality policy and decision-making".
When you’ve abjectly failed on a major construction project the sensible approach is – stop digging, no matter how little of that has actually been done.
That response sounds so pompous and aloof as to be insulting. The "decision-makers" have already decided their expertise is of such "high quality" as to be beyond explanation, far less challenge.
How can that attitude be viewed as being beneficial to the public? How can it be seen as anything other than arrogant?
It is however being challenged by MSP Fergus Ewing, who is showing relentless tenacity in holding his SNP bosses to account for their failings on a range of issues.
For much of his 24-year tenure at Holyrood, that didn’t happen. Ewing, as he worked his way through a number of ministerial posts, was no more prepared to take on the role of fearless, maverick crusader than any other SNP politician and breach what seemed an iron code of party discipline.
He’s more than making up for lost time now.
The lack of progress on the A9 is a major political issue.
With the Inverness parliamentary constituency being reshaped at the next General Election it will come heavily into play and MP Drew Hendry's opponents will maximise it to the full.
The Liberal Democrats, in particular, are already fired up for the campaign ahead, with businessman, councillor and entrepreneur Angus MacDonald leading the charge as their candidate. He is a multi-millionaire.
Last week an election brochure about him landed on my doormat and its size, quality and design smacked of money being no object. Setting aside the content, this publication was far removed from the thin and weedy election leaflets normally dispersed. Well before the election starting gun is fired, the candidate and his party are already making very clear declarations of intent.
For too long SNP dominance across much of the Highlands achieved too little in advancing progress on the A9. Was that because leading SNP politicians in the region just didn’t want to rock the boat?
Well it’s being rocked now and that will continue.
Fergus Ewing has recently launched so many salvos against the SNP and their Green partners in government that it's difficult to keep track of them all. His latest at the weekend included the declaration that the SNP and Greens are pursuing a "nonsensical and manifestly absurd strategy" .
It doesn't get much more damning than that.
On issues like their gender reform obsession and the deposit return fiasco many will agree with him. He’s had his say. But what I'd really like to know now centres on another question.
What does Drew Hendry, as he shapes up for a very tough election battle ahead, think of it all, and what does he make of the ferocious and damaging denunciations of the SNP made by his Inverness colleague and long-term partner by association Fergus Ewing?
