GRAHAM GRANT: How did this ruthless consigliere ever earn the 愛称 'Honest' John?
He has the carefully cultivated 空気／公表する of a 穏やかな-mannered 借り切る／憲章d accountant ? which helped to earn him the 愛称 ‘Honest John’.
But John Swinney is a seasoned 操作者 with a talent for 生き残り who became a 信用d ? and ruthless ? consigliere to both Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond.
Last year he やめる as 副 First 大臣 after Ms Sturgeon 辞職するd, の直前に the SNP was 急落（する），激減（する）d into 多重の crises ? 含むing an 現在進行中の police 詐欺 調査 into the SNP’s 財政／金融s.
He had been looking 今後 to a 平和的な （一定の）期間 on the backbenches, 許すing him to spend more time with his family.
Now, in an astonishing 新たな展開 to his long career, he may be about to take on the highest political office in the land.
John Swinney may be about to take on the highest political office in the land in an astonishing 新たな展開 to a long career
Many in the SNP see him as the ultimate 連続 候補者, a 冷静な／正味の-長，率いるd 年上の 政治家 who can help a fractured party to move on from a tumultuous period of psychodrama and civil war.
But Mr Swinney ? who joined the SNP at the age of 15 after becoming 納得させるd Scotland was getting a raw 取引，協定 as part of the Union ? is no stranger to leadership, even if his time at the 舵輪／支配 is rarely 特記する／引用するd as his finest hour.
His 任期 as SNP leader between 2000 and 2004 saw the party’s fortunes flatline, only to 急に上がる thereafter when his 前任者, Mr Salmond, 棒 支援する to the 救助（する） to 後継する him.?
When 選挙（人）の success did come under Mr Salmond, the failed former leader re-cast himself as the 高度に dependable 中尉／大尉／警部補, assuming the 需要・要求するing 役割 of 閣僚 長官 for 財政／金融, 雇用 and 維持できる growth, which took in energy, 観光旅行，事業, 気候 change and public 輸送（する）.
Ever-慎重な as 財政／金融 長官, he was 賞賛するd for balancing the 調書をとる／予約するs, even though this was a strict 合法的な 必要物／必要条件.
He later became 不可欠の to Ms Sturgeon as her 副, though ironically even a cursory 熟考する／考慮する of his time in 政府 shows his 評判 as a 安全な pair of 手渡すs was often unmerited.
As education 長官 in 2020, he 統括するd over an exam results fiasco that led to the Scottish 政府 逆転するing a 決定／判定勝ち（する） to downgrade 124,000 results for 76,000 pupils.
Exams were cancelled because of the pandemic, meaning teachers were asked to grade pupils before the Scottish 資格s 当局 put 見積（る）s through a moderation 過程, which led to 集まり downgrading, 不均衡な 影響する／感情ing pupils in some of Scotland’s poorest areas.
Mr Swinney apologised and 生き残るd a 投票（する） of no 信用／信任 in August 2020, with the help of the Greens.
When a major 全世界の 熟考する／考慮する 設立する Scottish pupils lag behind those in Latvia, Slovenia and Estonia in maths ? and are outperformed by children in England ? Mr Swinney 答える／応じるd by （人命などを）奪う，主張するing that we were on ‘the 権利 跡をつける’.
It didn’t 損失 his standing in the party: in 2021 he was 手渡すd the new and 決定的な 職業 of 長官 for Covid 回復 ? and he continued in his 役割 of 閣僚 enforcer.
When 議会 需要・要求するd 合法的な advice on the 政府’s ill-運命／宿命d 企て，努力，提案 to contest Mr Salmond’s judicial review against its 深く，強烈に 欠陥d いやがらせ 調査（する）, it was Mr Swinney who oversaw the 過程 of piecemeal 出版（物）, which carried a high 危険 of political 損失.
支援する in 2021, he ignored two 投票（する）s 勧めるing him to publish the 文書s and later 洞穴d in ? or appeared to ? only at the 11th hour after he 直面するd the Tory-led 脅し of a no 信用／信任 投票（する）, which was 最初 put on ice when he （人命などを）奪う，主張するd he had 従うd.
But the 投票（する） later went ahead まっただ中に a 列／漕ぐ／騒動 over whether all of the 関連した advice had been published.
Mr Swinney won with the support of the Greens, then de facto SNP backbenchers who would すぐに go on to become partners in the ill-運命／宿命d 力／強力にする-株ing 取引，協定 known as the Bute House Agreemen t.
保守的な MSP Murdo Fraser said at the time that Mr Swinney had deigned to publish the 合法的な advice only when a gun had been held at his 長，率いる.
During one of the shabbiest episodes in Holyrood history, Mr Swinney 否定するd that Liam 料金, a Fife two-year-old 殺人d by his mother and her partner, had been 支配する to an 早期に 見解／翻訳／版 of 指名するd Person, the Orwellian 計画／陰謀 that sought to 任命する 明言する／公表する 後見人s for every child in the country, 含むing unborn babies.
In a show of righteous indignation, he said it was ‘atrocious’ to make that 関係 ? 効果的に that it was a 中傷する on hard-working social 労働者s.
Later, an 公式の／役人 報告（する）／憶測 確認するd that the 指名するd Person 政策 had ‘与える／捧げるd to 混乱’ about who was 責任がある 供給するing support for Liam. Mr Swinney has never apologised.
一方／合間, a 圧力（をかける） 解放（する） from 2016 headlined ‘Swinney commits to roll-out service as 合法的な 企て，努力，提案 to 捨てる NP [指名するd Person] 計画／陰謀 fails’ remains on the 政府 website, にもかかわらず 存在 manifestly 誤った.
The 率先 was 支配するd to be 大部分は unlawful by 最高裁判所 裁判官s, but only after the SNP fought tooth and nail to 海難救助 it, wasting time and around £800,000 of taxpayers’ money.
Mr Swinney, who 相続するd the 指名するd Person 政策 when he moved to the education 簡潔な／要約する from 財政／金融, became something of an evangelist for it, or at least 公然と appeared to speak up for it with 本物の passion.
He also 支持する／優勝者d the SNP’s doomed transgender 改革（する）s which were 封鎖するd by the UK 政府 ? then binned after the 国家主義者s lost a 高くつく／犠牲の大きい 合法的な fight to save them.
Mr Swinney spoke out against former 財政／金融 長官 Kate Forbes ? a member of the socially 保守的な 解放する／自由な Church of Scotland ? when she stood in th e SNP leadership contest last year, 説 he ‘profoundly 同意しないd’ with her 対立 to equal marriage.
Mr Swinney said: ‘I’m a man of 深い Christian 約束 but I do not 持つ／拘留する the same 見解（をとる）s.
‘Kate is perfectly する権利を与えるd to 表明する her 見解（をとる）s, but party members are 平等に する権利を与えるd to decide if someone who 持つ／拘留するs those 見解（をとる）s would be an appropriate individual to be SNP leader and First 大臣.’
Ms Forbes 攻撃する，衝突する 支援する and （人命などを）奪う，主張するd he was 効果的に 説 that a woman with ‘Christian 見解（をとる）s’ was not suitable to run the country.
Mr Swinney was also a 支持者 of Humza Yousaf’s 議論の的になる Hate 罪，犯罪 行為／法令／行動する which, like 指名するd Person, has been branded illiberal and led to a 殺到する in 大部分は 匿名の／不明の 主張s, putting the overstretched 選び出す／独身 police 軍隊 under 大規模な 圧力.
While 事実上の／代理 as stand-in 財政／金融 長官 during Ms Forbes’s maternity leave in 2022, Mr Swinney 発表するd a rise in the 率 of 所得税 for higher earners in Scotland ? a ‘penny for 患者 care’, as he called it.
Yet the NHS remains in a 明言する／公表する of seemingly perpetual 危機, and health spending is 始める，決める to 落ちる.
In 2023, Mr Swinney said that he had 繰り返して tried to leave 政府 over the previous seven years but Ms Sturgeon ‘wouldn’t countenance’ it.
The pair were の近くに ? though as we now know, he wiped all of his pandemic WhatsApp conversations with her, 奪うing 未来 調査s of a 決定的な （武器などの）隠匿場所 of （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） about 大臣の 決定／判定勝ち（する）-making during the worst public health 危機 in living memory.
Honest John should easily 勝利，勝つ the 支援 of the Greens to 取って代わる Mr Yousaf ? after all, they have saved his 肌 on many occasions, even before the SNP 協定／条約 with Patrick Harvie’s Marxist eco-zealots.
For long-苦しむing 投票者s, Mr Swinney is at least a known 量 but many will 見解（をとる） the return of yesterday’s man to the 前線-line of Scottish politics as a depressing commentary on the paucity of talent in our 深く，強烈に dysfunctional 議会.
