John Swinney, who stepped reluctantly into the breach as the SNP imploded, has proven to be an adept leader, says Andy Maciver

Good things come to those who wait. Readers of a certain age may think of Guinness at this point (other stouts are available), however I wonder if we might end up making the link not between the proverb and a pint, but between the proverb and a politician - John Swinney.

There was a time, less than 18 months ago, when it looked much more like nothing good would come to Mr Swinney. He had taken control of an unhappy party, fractured by the leadership contest between Kate Forbes and his predecessor, Humza Yousaf, trapped under the cloud of the arrest of Nicola Sturgeon, and facing a popular backlash for a series of policy humiliations.

Mr Swinney is much too loyal and discreet to say it out loud, but he will undoubtedly have felt as though he was the recipient of a proverbial hospital pass. The poor man, who had served his time in Parliament and Government, and was due to bow out with the rest of the 1999 intake of SNP MSPs, found himself with no choice but to soldier on. And for what? To lead his party to a major reversal, and perhaps even a defeat, at an election he wasn’t even supposed to be standing in, but to do so with a grace deemed unattainable with anyone else at the helm.

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But Mr Swinney is wily. Lenin once said "there are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen", and perhaps Mr Swinney thought similarly when, before he could really get his feet under the desk, his party took an almighty shellacking at the........

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