John Swinney was made to comment on the pressure to drop rapper Kanye West from headlining Wireless Festival. Why in the world is the First Minister even being asked about it in the first place, asks Derek McArthur.

First Minister John Swinney has been called a lot of things but allow me to be the first journalist to call him incredibly unhip.

There’s no spin that can be applied to that. The man is a square. There is no rebrand around the corner where he’s flexed out in a black turtleneck and gold chain. Even the most oblivious SNP party hacks know being culturally relatable is the opposite of playing to his strengths. He is someone at a level of power who has to live, breathe, and sleep his political position, and that is for the best as a state leader, but it leaves hardly any time to get tapped into the culture.

So it was totally perplexing when Swinney was made to give his opinion on the pressures to drop headliner Kanye West from the now-cancelled Wireless Festival, due to the rapper’s recent love affair with Nazism. Swinney was a deer in headlights, completely unaware of the severe case of whiplash that is West’s career. He might as well have been asked about Zendaya and Tom Holland’s wedding plans. Total white noise to his ears.

John Swinney drawn into Kanye West row as Wireless........

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