Pity the poor SNP support. It’s been a bad couple of seasons generally but recent poor performance could mean humiliating relegation awaits.

The thing is, it shouldn’t be like this. The SNP are in a difficult place, for sure, but they also have the opportunity for a fresh start. John Swinney became First Minister with the reputation of being a better politician than his predecessor. He had a decent public approval rating. He was the safe pair of hands. That man knows a thing or two about election campaigns, the party faithful must have thought. We can finally get on the front foot – so they believed.

Most importantly, the SNP, for all their many failures, have stuff on arch-rivals Labour. They have been mitigating Westminster benefits cuts, like the bedroom tax, and introducing new benefits, like the Scottish Child Payment, while Labour won’t commit to dumping the two-child limit. As a devolved government at one remove from responsibility for Britain’s economy, the SNP have the luxury of being able to attack Labour’s fiscal conservatism. They can embarrass Labour over Brexit. They’ve taken a firmer position on Gaza. The party even has the veneer of uneasy unity, for now. These things give them a half-decent story to tell on the doorstep – or something to say that deflects attention away from a certain police inquiry, at any rate.

A reversal of fortunes is pretty much impossible to envisage, but you might expect the polls to narrow a bit as election day approaches.

The trouble is, it all counts for nothing........

© Herald Scotland