If change is the law of life, as JFK said, then First Minister John Swinney is trying with quite some gusto to live life by the letter and the spirit of the law.

Mr Swinney, during the two years of his leadership and with some pace during this election campaign, is in the process of pulling off rather an impressive political trick; convincing the public that the change they clearly want can be delivered by the party which has overseen the problems they want fixed.

He moved closer in this direction, again, as he launched his party’s manifesto yesterday. Mr Swinney has emphasised his four priorities since his arrival at Bute House - economic growth, public services, climate change and child poverty - but his positioning at this election is clearly elevating the first of those, economic growth, to the top of the priority list. 

This is logical, of course - no country can do anything without money, and you can’t make money in a dormant economy. Nevertheless, it is not where the SNP has been for large parts of its time in office.

Critics will point to a continuation of the frivolities of the last decade-or-so, with initiatives such as a ‘free’ schoolbag for all primary ones and the rather bizarre, and inevitably doomed, food price cap. This is a fair cop - there are some head-in-hands moments in this manifesto, and plenty sops to a party which remains rather attached to the past.

Read more by Andy Maciver:

No more excuses on roads and infrastructure

Scotland wants political change, but they might think they can get it by staying the same 

There will be more of those sops to a........

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