It is true, I am sure, that actions speak louder than words. Nonetheless, that does not render words unimportant. Indeed, politicians are at least part storytellers and so, for them, words are almost as important as actions.

Life in Scotland is not much better, at least not in any meaningful, tangible way, for John Swinney’s two years in the job as First Minister. That should not be hugely surprising. The country was in decay for at least a decade at the point he took over, and better vibes do not pay the bills (as Mr Swinney’s Westminster counterpart, Andy Burnham, will likely discover over the next couple of years).

That is why words really matter. And it is why, in my view at least, the words spoken by Mr Swinney earlier this week, during his first Programme for Government under his own mandate, really matter.

In amongst the tens of thousands of words across the hundred-or-so pages of documentation, the most important of them all was “rewiring”. Scotland will be rewired, and Mr Swinney has positioned himself as a working foreman leading his team of sparkies.

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Using the word ‘rewiring’ is telling in two ways: as a diagnosis of the failure of his predecessors, and an indication of wholesale system change which will define his legacy.

The failure is real. Never in our........

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