Seven Holyrood elections have been held in the devolved era and this one seems to have been the least engaging of them all. On social media and among political commentators, a rather depressing consensus is apparent: that Holyrood 2026 has been a non-event. The fate of Scotland does not hang on it and little of any consequence will occur as a result of it.

The STV leaders’ debate in Edinburgh on Tuesday night merely reinforced such an analysis. There was a moment when the Scottish Conservative leader, Russell Findlay repeatedly asked the First Minister to explain why drugs deaths in Scotland under the SNP were now at chronic levels. Mr Swinney replied lamely that his party had “taken action to stop it”. This was wrong and everyone in the room, not least Mr Swinney, knew it to be so. He might well just have said “naw it iznae” for all that he and his supporters seem to care. And indeed why the hell should they care? The SNP will win next Thursday’s election and win handsomely. They’ll hold on to some seats where the drugs deaths are heaviest.

Scotland’s main party leaders lined up to tell Mr Swinney that his party had been a catastrophic failure throughout its 20 years in office. In response, the First Minister offered only the prospect of cheap bus fares, walk-in GPs surgeries, free schoolbags and cut-price comestibles. He said that Scotland was doing better than England across any sector that you cared to mention by quoting a series of unverified numbers that can be challenged by different measuring tools. No-one in the room asked him to verify them. Even his opponents have given up the ghost.

SNP could be set for major losses in three Edinburgh battleground........

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