In an age of iconoclasm and insurgency, the ultimate political insider is holding sway in Scotland.

John Swinney as First Minister has shown a degree of self-assurance he has no right to on paper.

It’s just over nine months since the SNP-Green power-sharing deal collapsed. Exactly nine months since he became First Minister heading a minority government in a hostile parliament. Seven months since he led his party to its worst general election losses in the devolution era.

In July, he looked like yesterday’s man and his veteran cabinet place-holders for an incoming Labour administration.

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It doesn’t look quite the same now. The dominant story of our times may be the rise of untested populist outsiders who disdain experience or knowledge, but here in Scotland the SNP’s second-time-round leader is proving it pays to know a thing or two.

He has just secured majority support for his budget. External events have naturally helped – Keir Starmer’s things-can-only-get-worse post-election mantra, coupled with the cut to winter fuel payments, caused a drastic poll decline for Scottish Labour that Mr Swinney could not have anticipated. Labour seems to have........

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